- Talk about a one-trick pony.
Practice is the key to mastery. Those who want to become successful at something should practice it over and over again to build their skills.
Unless what you’re trying to learn is incredibly stupid, in which case it’d be better to direct your efforts elsewhere. The questionable hero of today’s story should’ve probably done that.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency published an unusual case report this week. They stopped an enterprising but not very skilled drug smuggler in Seattle.
We’re saying that because they caught the same guy twice in one week, trying to smuggle drugs through the same airport.
Not only that, the man actually went to jail between the attempts. After he paid bail, he immediately returned to the airport with another drug shipment.
The hapless smuggler definitely has that can-do attitude. But come on, man—the same airport?
A Haul to Remember
On July 14, a flight from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, arrived at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The passengers exited the plane and began making their way through the customs.
One man, however, caught the customs field agents’ attention. He was a 43-year-old U.S. citizen and there was something weird in his luggage.
So, he was referred to the CBP for a secondary inspection. When going through the man’s bags, the CBP agents discovered quite the haul.
The piece de resistance of his illicit goods was ketamine. He was carrying both powdered and liquid forms of the highly hallucinogenic drug.
Put together, he had 12 pounds of ketamine in his bags. Considering that the average ketamine dose in recreational use is less than 100 milligrams, or 0.003 ounces…
Yeah, that’s a lot of ketamine.
But wait, as the late Billy Mays would say, there’s more! In addition to ketamine, the man also carried two pounds of morphine-derivative codeine.
Finally, the CBP discovered almost three ounces of gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) in the man’s bags. This stuff is notorious for being used as a date rape drug.
We don’t know what the man was planning to do with his haul. But he certainly had a penchant for more exotic substances than old-fashioned cocaine or heroin.
Well, there’s not much to say about the remainder of the day’s events. The CBP arrested the man and turned him over to the Port of Seattle Police Department.
Back at It
That wasn’t the end of the story, though. Just a couple of days later, the staff at Seattle-Tacoma probably did a double-take when they saw a familiar face in the security check line.
The man had returned!
He had gone to jail after his initial drug bust, but he had posted bail and been released. However, he clearly didn’t reflect on his actions at all, even to become a better smuggler.
See, the thing about smuggling is that you don’t really want to try it twice in the same place—especially if your first attempt failed. Once the security personnel learn your name and face, they will invariably pull you out of the line for an extra-close screening every single time they see you.
And that’s just what they did with our guy.
The man had purchased tickets to fly to London. Can you guess why he wanted to return to Europe?
You got it — he had more ketamine on him.
This time, the CBP confiscated half a pound of the drug from the man’s checked bag. Not as impressive of a haul as the first one, but it’s something.
Long story short, the man was arrested again. He’s now facing charges of ketamine possession with intent to distribute.
Same guy, same airport, same drug — all in one week. Some people just don’t learn.
If you’d like to read more weird smuggling stories, check out our lists of bizarre drug smuggling methods (that didn’t work) and the oddest things people tried to smuggle (without success).