I don’t watch a ton of television and I don’t watch reality TV … except for the shows about border control. One of my favorites to watch is Border Security: Australia’s Front Line. There are also versions from the USA, Canada, and Colombia and while I enjoy all of them, I find the Australian show to be the best, followed by the Colombian version.

Image via Pixabay.

Watching the country’s customs and border agents in action is fascinating. The show offers a variety of scenarios, including airports, land borders and the customs clearance areas for packages. It’s nerve-racking to see brazen or desperate travelers risking the best years of their lives to do something that’s going to put them behind bars. It’s tragic when people smuggle drugs by swallowing pills or lining their suitcases with liquid forms of narcotics, thinking they will never be discovered. But of course, they always are.

It’s even more heartbreaking if some of these individuals honestly didn’t know what they were carrying and were just doing a favor for a friend or family member.

This is why I find U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press releases interesting, as they showcase what is uncovered daily.

One of today’s headlines caught my eye: Dulles CBP Officers Unspool Nearly 70,000 Ambien Pills Wrapped in Yarn. It turns out that a routine CBP inspection of a yarn shipment from India led to the discovery of nearly 70,000 Zolpidem Tartrate pills on January 16. The shipment, which contained 96 rolls of black yarn wrapped around pink tubes, arrived at an air cargo warehouse near Washington Dulles International Airport on December 17, destined for an address in Buena Park, California. During the inspection, CBP officers unwound one of the yarn spools and found several 10-pill blister packs taped to the pink tube.

The pills were identified as Zolpidem Tartrate, also known as Ambien, a sedative-hypnotic medication prescribed for insomnia. Zolpidem is classified as a Schedule IV controlled substance by the DEA due to its potential for abuse.

Further inspection of the remaining 95 spools revealed similar hidden pill packs. In total, officers found 69,813 pills concealed inside the spools of yarn. The pills, weighing 60 pounds and valued at approximately $33,000, were seized by CBP officers on January 16.

“This is a very bold attempt to smuggle a significant amount of prescription medicine into the United States, but this creative concealment method failed to fool Customs and Border Protection officers,” said Christine Waugh, CBP’s Area Port Director for the Area Port of Washington, D.C. “CBP officers are committed to protecting the public by intercepting illicit and potentially dangerous products that arrive at our nation’s ports of entry every day.”

The dealers sure do get creative, and I’m glad the agents didn’t get fooled. I do wonder what percentage of times illegal goods slip through the cracks, but I guess we’ll never know.

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1 Comment On "Dulles CBP officers uncover nearly 70,000 Ambien pills concealed in yarn"
  1. Christian|

    I’m not very knowledgeable about Ambien or smuggling or the illicit drugs scene but wouldn’t smuggling something with a higher street value than fifty cents a pill be a better bet? Especially at 60 pounds.

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