Narcotic detector dog sniffs out cocaine covered cornflakes in Ohio
‘That’s not Frosted Flakes,’ customs authorities joked
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Your support makes all the difference.Authorities in Ohio have revealed that they intercepted a particularly unusual supply of cereal this month after discovering that the batch of cornflakes was covered in cocaine.
Customs authorities in Cincinnati said on Friday they had intercepted 44 pounds (about 20 kilograms) of the contraband cereal which had been shipped from South America to a Hong Kong home.
The cocaine-covered cornflakes were discovered when a narcotic detector dog named Bico alerted agents to a large shipment of cereal while working incoming freight from Peru.
“When officers opened the box to take a closer look, they saw that the cereal contained white powder, and the flakes were coated with a grayish substance,” a press release said.
Officers tested the flakes and powder and found they contained cocaine, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed.
“That’s not Frosted Flakes—CBP K9 ‘Bico’ sniffed out 44lbs of cocaine in a shipment of cereal originating from South America,” the agency said in a Twitter post about the bizarre find.
On a typical day in Fiscal Year 2020, CBP said it had seized 3,677 pounds of drugs at ports of entry across the nation.
Cincinnati Port Director Richard Gillespie stressed that smugglers continue to use increasingly creative ways to hide the narcotics, and will put substances in anything imaginable.
“The men and women at the Port of Cincinnati are committed to stopping the flow of dangerous drugs, and they continue to use their training, intuition, and strategic skills to prevent these kinds of illegitimate shipments from reaching the public,” he said.
The cornflake bust is far from the first report of traffickers attempting to smuggle drugs in or with foods, as CNN reported last year that police in Italy discovered cocaine in a coffee bean shipment.
According to the report, police found more than 500 beans that had been hollowed out, filled, and resealed with tape after opening a parcel addressed to a fictional Mafia boss from a Hollywood movie.
Last week, in the United Kingdom, police seized 2.3 tonnes of cocaine in a shipment of bananas from Colombia.
CBP conducts operations at ports of entry throughout the US, and regularly screens arriving international passengers and cargo for narcotics, weapons, and other restricted or prohibited products.
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