First, it was celery, now watermelon helped hide a massive shipment of illegal drugs.

U.S. Customs And Border Protection said officers seized more than $5 million worth of methamphetamine that was disguised as a shipment of watermelons last week.

The false fruit was found at the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility when a man driving a tractor-trailer tried to get into the U.S. from Mexico. The manifest for the shipment said it was all watermelons.

The officers diverted the driver, truck and cargo to a secondary inspection area for a closer look and that’s where they found 1,220 packages that were wrapped in paper to look like watermelons.

Tests confirmed the packages contained 4,587 pounds, or over two tons, of meth that had an estimated street value of $5 million.

The drugs and the truck were seized while the driver was transferred into the custody of Homeland Security Investigations.

The seizure was part of an effort to stop bringing another drug into the country — fentanyl. Operation Apollo started in October 2023 in California but was expanded to Arizona earlier this year and “focuses on intelligence collection and partnerships, and utilizes local CBP field assets augmented by federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to boost resources, increase collaboration, and target the smuggling of fentanyl into the United States,” CBP said in a news release.

Earlier this month a shipment of celery was seized at a Georgia farmer’s market after it was found to conceal more than a ton of meth.

© 2024 Cox Media Group