Customs officers in California seize $5 million worth of methamphetamine disguised as watermelons

By Ashley R. Williams, CNN

(CNN) — US Customs and Border Protection officers in southern California discovered that a supposed watermelon shipment wasn’t what it seemed after they uncovered more than $5 million worth of methamphetamine concealed inside, the agency said.

A 29-year-old man driving a commercial tractor-trailer attempted to enter the United States from Mexico with a shipment manifested for watermelons, CBP said in a news release Tuesday.

Officers at the agency’s Otay Mesa Commercial Facility near San Diego referred the driver, his vehicle and cargo for additional examination, according to the release.

The shipment containing what was reported to be watermelons was offloaded and officers discovered 1,220 packages of methamphetamine wrapped in paper and disguised as the 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, according to the release.

The bust was the result of Operation Apollo, an operation in southern California and Arizona that targets fentanyl smuggling into the US, the CBP said.

Earlier this month, CBP officers in Otay Mesa intercepted 629 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $755,000 that was hidden within a celery shipment, the agency said.

The agency has seized nearly 146,000 pounds of methamphetamine in 2024 so far, already exceeding last year’s seizure total of 140,000 pounds of the drug, federal data show.

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

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