by Tokana Hasavi Jr – EM TV World News
The number of ways that drug syndicates and individuals smuggle narcotics is profoundly limitless and today, any item (and I mean any item) can be used.
Last week, Argentine customs found about 30 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a way they had never seen before, when drug-sniffing dogs found the drug had been absorbed into grains of rice.
Chief of narcotic investigations, Guillermo Gonzalez, was amazed by this new method.
“It is a new method; this is the first time that this level of technology has been used to hide this type of drug in grains of rice,” Gonzalez said.
The narcotics were headed for Europe via Africa.
The bust stresses the role Argentina has come to play as a shipping point for cocaine produced in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia, destined for Africa through the South Atlantic Sea and then smuggled north to the lucrative markets of Europe.
In this case, the creative drug experts soaked rice in water, mixed with cocaine.
Gonzales said when the water evaporated the rice was left invisibly “infused” with the drug.
“Once the dog selects a bag, it is scanned and then the corresponding bag is opened up to identify the product and that’s the point– after we used the reactive– that we were able to detect the presence of narcotics,” Gonzalez explained.
Twelve suspects, among them Argentines and Colombians, have been arrested in what people are calling “Operation White Rice”.
A similar story has developed in Papua New Guinea, with the porous border it shares with Australia’s Northern Territory.
Daru is a short ride away and has earned a reputation in facilitating the transport of drugs to Australia, using high powered speed boats.
In October 2014, Australian police seized nearly 1000 cannabis plants and enough chemicals to create AUS$2.5 million worth of methamphetamines, in Far North Queensland.
A drug and gun smuggling syndicate operating between Australia and Papua New Guinea was shut down in the operation.
