CNN
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Southern California discovered that a supposed watermelon shipment was not what it seemed after discovering more than $5 million worth of methamphetamine hidden inside, the agency said.
A 29-year-old man driving a semi-trailer attempted to enter the United States from Mexico with a load of watermelons, the U.S. CBP said in a press release on Tuesday.
Officials at the agency’s Otay Mesa Commercial Facility near San Diego referred the driver, his vehicle and the cargo for further investigation, the news release said.
While unloading the shipment, which suspected to contain watermelons, officers discovered 1,220 packets of methamphetamine wrapped in paper and disguised as fruit, the agency said.
The contents weighed nearly 4,600 pounds.
The man was turned over to the custody of Homeland Security Investigations and CBP officers seized the drugs and the tractor-trailer, the press release said.
The raid was the result of Operation Apollo, an operation in Southern California and Arizona aimed at combating fentanyl smuggling into the United States, CBP said.
Earlier this month, CBP officers in Otay Mesa intercepted 629 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $755,000 hidden in a shipment of celery, the agency said.
So far in 2024, the agency has seized nearly 146,000 pounds of methamphetamine, already exceeding the total of 140,000 pounds of the drug seized last year, federal data show.
Methamphetamine and other synthetic stimulants accounted for about 30% of the nearly 108,000 drug-related deaths in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
