California Customs Officers Seize $5 Million in Methamphetamine Disguised as Watermelons

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Southern California discovered that a suspected shipment of watermelons was not what it appeared after finding more than $5 million worth of methamphetamine hidden inside, the agency said.

A 29-year-old man attempted to enter the United States from Mexico in a truck carrying a load of watermelons, CBP said in a news release Tuesday.

Officers from the agency’s Otay Mesa Commercial Facility, near San Diego, referred the driver, his vehicle and cargo for further investigation, the news release said.

The shipment, which reportedly contained watermelons, was unloaded and agents discovered 1,220 packages of methamphetamine wrapped in paper and disguised as fruit, the agency said.

The contents weighed almost 2,000 kilos.

The man was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations and CBP agents seized the drugs and the truck, the press release said.

The raid was the result of Operation Apollo, an operation in Southern California and Arizona aimed at smuggling fentanyl into the U.S., CBP said.

Earlier this month, CBP agents in Otay Mesa seized 650 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $755,000. The substance was hidden in a shipment of celery, the agency said.

Federal data shows the agency has seized nearly 150,000 pounds of methamphetamine so far in 2024, surpassing last year’s total of 150,000 pounds of the drug.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, methamphetamine and other synthetic stimulants were responsible for about 30% of the nearly 108,000 drug-related deaths in 2022.

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