This morning, 21.09.18 two officers from Texas Department of Criminal Justice collected 2 pallets of ripe bananas; 45 boxes. This was a donation from a Freeport business to the Scott Unit, as they were already ripe.

Sometimes, life gives you lemons.
Sometimes, it gives you bananas.
And sometimes, it gives you something you’d never expect!

On this Friday, it was $18 million worth of cocaine inside boxes of ripe bananas said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman, Jeremy Desel.

“One of the sergeants noticed one of the boxes didn’t seem quite right. Looked a little further. Removed that box off one of the pallets. Looked inside and saw something extraordinarily suspicious. Raised a red flag to the Customs officials, who started an investigation,” Desel explained.

There were 45 boxes containing not only the bananas, but also 540 kilos of cocaine. The street value is estimated at nearly $18 million. U.S. Customs and DEA agents responded and seized the drugs.

“It’s a very significant seizure,” said Campbell, who explained the finds are called “cover loads,” illegal drugs hidden in loads of legitimate goods and used by traffickers to move drugs into the country. Agents seize “cover loads” often.

The banana load got only so far, intercepted by two alert officers, Desel said.

“Our correctional officers and supervisory correctional officers are trained to notice things out of place that don’t seem quite right,” said Desel. “They’re doing their jobs, not just on our units, but somewhere else, and they found something good today.”