US border officers in Texas have seized over a tonne of marijuana from Mexico stuffed into nearly 3,000 fake carrots mixed with real ones, officials said.
Officers in Pharr, Texas, on Sunday found 2,493 pounds of suspected marijuana concealed within a commercial shipment of fresh carrots entering from Mexico.
"Once again, drug smuggling organisations have demonstrated their creativity in attempting to smuggle large quantities of narcotics across the US-Mexico border," Port Director Efrain Solis said in a statement.
The truck hauling the produce crossed the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge along the Texas-Mexico border near the Gulf of Mexico.
The imaging inspection system flagged the vehicle for a secondary examination, where agents found the smuggled drugs, according to the US Customs and Border Protection statement.
Almost 3,000 carrot-shaped packages were discovered mixed in with real carrots. Officers were able to fill up the beds of two pickup trucks with the seized contraband. The estimated street value of the marijuana is USD 499,000, CNN reported.
The case is under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.
This wasn't the first time carrots were used in drug smuggling attempts. In November 2015, agents at this same checkpoint seized almost two million dollars worth of alleged marijuana and cocaine found in packages of fresh cucumbers and carrots, the report said.
