A District woman was arrested Tuesday after airport customs officials said they found nearly three pounds of cocaine stuffed inside her bra.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested Sophia Williams, of Washington, early Tuesday morning after they say they found two pounds and nine ounces of cocaine stuffed inside her bra when she landed at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport on a flight from Jamaica.
It appeared as if the bra padding had been replaced with cocaine packages molded into the shape of an implant and colored with a marker to match the dark material, a spokesman said.
“Narcotics smugglers will go to great lengths to conceal their dangerous drugs,” said James Swanson, Customs and Border Protection director for the Port of Baltimore. “Unfortunately for [Williams], it wasn’t so unique that it fooled our highly trained officers even for a second.”
The padded bra is just the latest way that someone has tried to smuggle illicit drugs into BWI. Three times this year men were caught at BWI carrying packages of cocaine disguised as dried soup or a hunk of cheese. One woman in Spain wore a cast made entirely out of cocaine.
Williams, 35, was returning to the United States on a late-night flight from Montego Bay. Customs officials became suspicious when she appeared to answer some of her questions inconsistently, said spokesman Steve Sapp.
“The inspectors are trained to look and listen for little hints or tells, like in poker, that may lead them to believe there is more to the story,” Sapp said.
Two female inspectors took her into a private room and patted her down and felt a hard substance in the bra area. The ordered her to remove the bra and found the illegal drugs, authorities said.
“It was just a cold hit based on officer instinct,” Sapp said.
Williams and the cocaine were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. She could not be reached Tuesday.
