U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers at Washington Dulles International Airport stopped more than four pounds of cocaine hidden in dry soup packages from entering the country after their drug-sniffing dog Demi picked up the scent, a CBP spokesman said. Jose Acevedo, a 41-year-old Carlisle, Pa., resident, was returning from a trip to El Salvador late Thursday when customs officers referred him to a secondary inspection.
As officers examined his baggage, the dog’s barking alerted them to drugs hidden inside dried chicken soup packets. Acevedo was arrested on drug-trafficking charges after officers pulled out the four pounds, five ounces of cocaine from the soup packages.
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Some of the cocaine packets, CBP spokesman Steve Sapp said, still had rice in them. The drugs, he said, have a street value of about $140,000. “Narcotics smuggling networks take extreme measures to conceal their deadly poison,” said Christopher Hess, CBP port director for the Port of Washington. “Each time we uncover a unique concealment method we force these dangerous networks to change tactics.”
But this isn’t the first time drug smugglers have attempted to use soup packets to get drugs past customs officers at Dulles. In February 2009, The Washington Examiner reported Jorge Luis Posada Guevara was caught carrying 16 pounds of cocaine hidden in soup packets at the airport.
He, too, had flown to Washington on a flight from El Salvador. Guevara has since pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
When he’s done serving his time, he will be deported. Authorities could not immediately say if Acevedo is a legal American resident. “This cocaine seizure is an excellent example of how Customs and Border Protection relies on experienced officers and well-trained narcotics detector dogs to stem the flow of illicit drugs,” Hess said.
“Keeping these two kilos of cocaine off our streets is one more small battle we can claim as a victory.”
