http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/114749

'Creative' smugglers hide pot in canned food
By Djamila Grossman
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.07.2006

Drug smugglers have proved very creative when shipping loads across the border, but hiding marijuana in cans of jalapeños and tomatoes is one of the more unusual cases, officials say.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Sasabe seized 34 pounds of marijuana Thursday, hidden in 10 food cans, said Brian Levin, an agency spokesman. Another part of the stash was found in the hollowed-out walls of a cooler filled with ice and sodas.

The driver, an 18-year-old man from Queen Creek, was arrested.
"For a while, that can is going to take the cake," Levin said. "This was one of the more elaborate attempts — it required creativity."

Smugglers have come up with many tricks to hide their drugs over the years, Levin said. Officers have found marijuana mixed in with cucumbers, drugs hidden in baby diapers and in children's backpacks, stuffed into body openings or strapped to the body, hidden in car tires, gas tanks or inside dashboards.

On Friday, officers in Nogales, Ariz., found 1,000 pounds of marijuana hidden between the outer and inner walls of a tractor-trailer rig carrying bricks, according to an agency press release.

"They have hidden it anywhere you can hide something," Levin said of drug smugglers.

● Contact reporter Djamila Grossman at dgrossman@azstarnet