Like the wolf in sheep’s clothing or Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot, putting a different wrapper on something and fooling everyone only works in fictional situations or when trying to trick actual sheep/Marilyn Monroe. U.S. customs agents are trained to catch people trying to hide stuff, which is why coating lumps of methamphetamine in chocolate and dressing them in Snickers wrappers didn’t work out too well for one man accused of trying to smuggle $250,000 worth of the drugs into Japan.

Agents in California busted a 34-year-old many at Los Angeles International Airport last week as he lined up to get on a flight to Japan with the drugs in treat clothing, say prosecutors. He was sniffed out during a routine inspection of checked luggage, when agents came across a large box of suspicious looking candy bars, reports the New York Daily News.

We Americans, we know our snacks, so we’re not surprised the agents knew something was off with the 45, full-sized and individually wrapped bars. Inside, instead of delicious peanut and caramel goodness, officials say they found a white substance that turned out to be meth.

The criminal complaint says each bar was “was coated in a chocolate-like substance to make the contents of the package appear to be a real candy bar.” Get it yet? It was supposed to look like candy, but it was drugs. Illegal drugs are the wolf or Tony Curtis  in this situation, you see.

The man is now facing a charge of meth possession with intent to distribute, and could receive up to 10 years to life in prison if he’s convicted.

“This scheme involved considerable planning and preparation and it shows the lengths to which smugglers will go in an attempt to elude detection,” said the special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Los Angeles in a statement. “The fact this ruse was detected should serve as a deterrent for others who might be considering trying similar tactics.”

California man tries to smuggle meth disguised as Snickers bars out of U.S. [New York Daily News]

 

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