23 Tons of Cocaine Seized in 3 Months

The U.S. Customs Service said Monday it seized almost 23 tons of cocaine in the last three months, including drugs hidden in shipments of beeswax and anchovies.

The 45,530 pounds of cocaine seized between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 was 11,276 pounds more than in the same period one year earlier, an increase of about one-third, Customs Service spokesman Dennis Shimkoski said.

“A lot of it is coming in by ship,” he said. “Sometimes it’s in hollowed-out lumber. We’ve found it in shipments of beeswax, fruit pulp, industrial gear boxes, anchovies and false walls of containers.”

Shimkoski said that sometimes bags of cocaine were secreted in huge containers of items such as fruit pulp, but other times the substance was just mixed in with the legitimate cargo and would have to be cooked out later.

“With the technology that they use, the sky’s the limit on what they’ll try next,” he said.