Cookbook was brimming with cocaine between its pages, Tennessee customs say
Here’s another reason to never judge a book by its cover.
An unassuming high school cookbook seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents was really a vessel for hiding cocaine, according to March 10 news release.
The international package arrived on Feb. 17 at the Memphis, Tennessee express consignment hub, the release said.
Inside the package was a hardcover book called “The Multi-Cultural Cuisine of Trinidad & Tobago & the Caribbean” — but it was missing a lot of pages and recipes.
Much of the book had been carved out to make room for a 147.6-gram (a little more than 5 ounces) pack of cocaine, the news release said.
“How was the recipient intending to cook his traditional callaloo, with all the pages cut up and replaced with cocaine,” Area Port of Memphis director Michael Neipert said in the release. “Smugglers continue to conceal narcotics and other contraband in myriad ways, which my officers seize over and over every shift.”
The shipment was from Trinidad and Tobago and was intercepted before it arrived in the Little Caribbean neighborhood of New York City, the release said.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Cookbook was brimming with cocaine between its pages, Tennessee customs say."
