Border police found almost half-a-million dollars-worth of liquid meth crammed into Halloween pumpkins as spooky season nears.
A US Customs and Border Protection press release confirmed officers discovered $402,196 (£359,000) of the liquefied narcotic in pumpkins at the Eagle Pass Port of Entry in Texas.
The haul of 44lb of methamphetamine, which had been cooked to a liquid and stuffed inside 136 condoms, was split between four pumpkins and stashed in a 2012 Ford Escape, the US Customs and Border Protection press release reads.
A photo of the seizure shows the green, oblong festive fruit sliced in half with the containers of hard drugs pouring out of it.
Agents pulled the vehicle to one-side as it attempted to cross the Eagle Pass bridge, which takes drivers from Mexico into Texas.
After an inspection they encountered the liquid substance, which they called a "rather novel" method of smuggling.
Acting Eagle Pass Port Director Elizabeth Garduno said: “Our frontline CBP officers have seen just about everything and this Tuesday was no exception as they encountered liquid methamphetamine hidden within pumpkins.
“They utilised their training, experience, interviewing skills and uncovered a rather novel narcotics smuggling method in the process.”
The narcotics were seized as the driver and his passenger were handed over to the local sheriff's office.
The highly addictive drug - which is often made in clandestine labs in Mexico - can be liquefied to make it harder to detect by border patrol, and their dogs.
For example, the scent of liquid methamphetamine can be masked by gasoline.
At the other end of the smuggling route, the liquid is boiled off to leave only the drug. In this way, litres of liquid meth can be converted to thousands of kilos of the crystallised narcotic.
Last year in Dagenham, a mum-of-four recalled going into meltdown when she found almost half a kilo of crystal meth inside her kids' cereal box.
Haisam Nassir, 25, was dishing out breakfast to her four children aged three, two and one-year-old twins, last summer when she realised something was wrong.
She was trying to pour more of the Golden Morn cereal, and despite feeling it was still half full, no more crunchy maize flakes were coming out.
When Haisam put her hand inside she could feel an extra bag blocking the rest of the cereal.
After pulling the bag out, she could see it was filled with white crystals, and after some research was shocked to discover she was handling methamphetamine, a class A drug.
