Los Angeles was a stopover for a Spanish mother-daughter smuggling pair on their way to Australia with what federal authorities said was more than 10 pounds of cocaine hidden inside food packages.
Plastic packets of chocolate syrup and salad dressing in the daughter’s checked luggage felt unusually thick to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at LAX last Thursday. The officers discovered a clear plastic bag with white paste had been stuffed inside the packets.
Five food bags disguised 5.5 pounds of paste, which tested positive for cocaine, according to a CBP press release Wednesday.
Josefa Puertas-Lopez, 56, and daughter, Cristina Jazmin Quintero-Puertas, 22, told authorities that they expected to be paid 10,000 Euros each if they had successfully delivered the drugs to Australia, according to the Daily Breeze.
The mother and daughter were arrested and taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The women are being held without bond. They are charged with possession with the intent to distribute cocaine, in a criminal complaint.
If convicted, they would face a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in federal prison. They could face up to 40 years in prison.
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Just last month, a Korean national attempted to smuggle 63 pounds of the main ingredient found in erectile dysfunction drugs into LAX.
He was never arrested or tried, however, because authorities could not immediately identify the substance, which he packed into more than a dozen silver packages.
When lab results finally come back, confirming those shiny silver packages were carrying almost $180,000 worth of tadalafil, the man was gone.
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