U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) say they’ve uncovered “an increasing trend” of U.S. marijuana growers and retailers shipping products to Europe and Africa where high-quality weed earns them several times the U.S. price.
Because of that, CBP is ramping up efforts to intercept those shipments. And it was “during one of these outbound inspections targeted on seizing marijuana,” that CBP officers found nearly 88 pounds of hashish in checked bags at Dulles, the agency reported.
On Monday, officers retrieved 28 vacuum-sealed bags of brown bricks in three suitcases that were being loaded onto a flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The material field tested as positive for hashish, CBP reported.
The traveler associated with those bags was Johnathan Edward Perez, a California resident, and he was escorted to the inspection area where the bags were being investigated, CBP said.
Perez was turned over to Virginia State Police and charged with felony possession with intent to distribute, transportation, and narcotics conspiracy charges.
This discovery comes only days after $350,000 worth of weed was snagged at Dulles, with CBP noting that they don’t usually catch shipments that large.
Suggesting that CBP at Dulles intends to keep the pressure on, Marc E. Calixte, CBP’s Area Port Director for the Area Port of Washington, D.C. said, “This seizure of Hashish is a gentle reminder to those who look to skirt our laws that CBP is steadfast in its enforcement responsibility.”
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