Woman’s suitcases were stuffed with vacuum-sealed bags of drugs in Virginia, feds say
A Texas woman traveling through a Virginia airport had more than 70 pounds of marijuana in her London-bound suitcases, authorities said. She was arrested.
The marijuana was discovered Nov. 22 inside two hard-cased suitcases at the Washington Dulles International Airport, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a Dec. 2 news release.
After identifying the owner as a 30-year-old woman, officers brought her and the suitcases to the inspection station for a continued search of the luggage — where they found a total of 60 vacuum-sealed bags containing 71 pounds and 11 ounces of marijuana, according to the release.
While CBP officers typically see attempts of exporting marijuana in much smaller quantities, this incident points to a continuing trend of U.S.-based growers and retailers trying to get bulk amounts of their product to Europe and Africa because it can often sell “many times higher” than in the U.S., authorities said.
CBP officers turned the woman over to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police. She was charged with felony possession, transporting controlled substances and narcotics conspiracy, according to the release.
Over 170,000 pounds of marijuana was seized by CBP in fiscal year 2024, according to the agency’s drug seizure statistics.
“Bulk marijuana smuggling is illegal, and Customs and Border Protection will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold smugglers accountable,” Marc E. Calixte, CBP’s area port director for the area port of Washington, D.C. said in the release.
This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Woman’s suitcases were stuffed with vacuum-sealed bags of drugs in Virginia, feds say."
