Smugglers Can’t Pull Wool Over Agents, 70K Ambien Pills Hidden in Yarn

Every so often, we come across bizarre examples of the attempts by smugglers to get contraband into the US illegally.  Customs and Border Patrol has seen liquid meth in gas tanks, drugs in the luggage compartments of charter buses (without passengers knowing), and now this.

   Shipment of wool yarn from India has drugs hidden in the strands

Wednesday, US Customs and Border Patrol released information about a bust made at the Dulles Airport near Washington D.C.

It involved a suspicious shipment of wool yarn from India. The shipment first came to the US on December 17th, and was bound for a location in Buena Park, CA.

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Customs agents unraveled part of one of the spools, to check for any issues, and found a blister pack of Ambien pills 'woven' into the thread.  Agents began to continue to examine the rolls, and by the time they were done, they estimated at least 70,000 pills were contained between the 96 rolls.

Ambien is a common prescription sleep aid, so these were bound for the Black Market.

The total weight of the pills was about 60 pounds, and the estimated value was about $33,000.  It took time to unravel all the pills from the yarn, the shipment was finally seized by CBP and processed on January 16th.  No word if any arrests were made connected to this attempt to pull the wool over CBP Agents' eyes.