4 shipments of deadly drugs seized in one night by customs officers in Cincinnati

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Four shipments containing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illegal drugs were seized on May 17 by Cincinnati U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.

Shipments from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and the United Kingdom containing drugs concealed in items like canned goods, a coffee maker, and knee pads, were intercepted before they reached residential addresses in California, New York, Michigan, and the United Kingdom, CBP officials say.

CBP Narcotic Detector Dog “Bruno” was alerted to a shipment of food cans, which once opened, contained a white liquid substance with an “unusual consistency inside,” according to Border Protection officials.

CBP officers found that the substance tested positive for cocaine and they seized 10 pounds of the drug worth an estimated street value of $172,000 that would have been headed to the United Kingdom.

Officers opened a second shipment from the Dominican Republic containing a coffee maker that had a bag of blue pills with triangle markings hidden inside, according to CBP.

CBP confirmed that the pills, which tested positive for fentanyl, were being sent to a New York residence and would have had a street value of over $3,000.

On the same night, customs found inbound shipments from Columbia and the United Kingdom. One shipment contained knee pads that had a purple powder concealed inside the material, and the other contained a protein powder with an unusual yellow tint.

According to CBP, both substances tested positive for Ketamine hydrochloride, which is a non-narcotic, but Ketamine is often abused as a hallucinogenic club drug called Special K.

CBP said the combined value of these two shipments was over $50,000. They also said that it was the second time in two days that a Ketamine shipment was intercepted on its way to Colorado.

The other shipment was headed to Michigan, CBP said.

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