CINCINNATI, Ohio — Tony the Tiger would not be pleased with these "frosted" flakes.
On Saturday, Cincinnati Customs and Border Patrol officers seized 44 pounds of corn flakes coated with cocaine, a shipment which could have a street value of up to $2.8 million.
According to a news release Friday, CBP Narcotic Detector Dog Bico was working freight from Peru coming into Cincinnati when he alerted officers to a large shipment of cereal bound for a Hong Kong residence.
That's not Frosted Flakes—CBP K9 “Bico” sniffed out 44lbs of cocaine in a shipment of cereal originating from South America. https://t.co/IUHgcVtxz5 pic.twitter.com/iEzcqx7OuG
— CBP (@CBP) February 20, 2021
Officers opened the box and discovered the cereal contained white powder, and the flakes were coated with a "grayish substance." Upon testing the flakes and powder, CBP officers found the "frosted" flakes contained cocaine.
Cincinnati Port Director Richard Gillespie said smugglers will hide narcotics in "anything imaginable," even in cereal.
Since October, Cincinnati CBP officers have seized 50 shipments of roughly 433 pounds of green powder cocaine disguised as matcha or moringa powder, two popular nutritional supplements.
“The men and women at the Port of Cincinnati are committed to stopping the flow of dangerous drugs, and they continue to use their training, intuition, and strategic skills to prevent these kinds of illegitimate shipments from reaching the public," Gillespie said in the release.
On a typical day last fiscal year, CBP seized 3,677 pounds of drugs at ports of entry across the U.S.
This story was originally published by Sam Rosenstiel at WCPO.