Cocaine-frosted cereal seized by United States customs was bound for Hong Kong home

The drug-laced breakfast food was sniffed out by a narcotics dog working with the US Customs and Border Protection in Ohio. Photo: US Customs and Border Protection
The drug-laced breakfast food was sniffed out by a narcotics dog working with the US Customs and Border Protection in Ohio. Photo: US Customs and Border Protection

A shipment of cocaine-coated cereal intercepted by US law enforcement earlier this month was headed for a Hong Kong address.

Frosted with HK$15.5 million (US$2.8 million) worth of cocaine, the cereal was deemed suspicious after Bico, a narcotics detector dog trained by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), flagged the package at a port in Ohio.

“When officers opened the box to take a closer look, they saw that the cereal contained white powder, and the flakes were coated with a grayish substance,” a statement by the CBP, published Feb. 19, read.

The cereal, which weighed in at 44kg, was shipped from Peru and headed for a “private residence in Hong Kong,” the CBP added.

A picture posted by the CBP shows the laced breakfast food packaged into two cereal boxes with Spanish wording.

Read more: Hong Kong student arrested in Macau for smuggling cocaine inside his rectum

Drug busts in Hong Kong soared last year, according to crime statistics compiled by the city’s police force. Police seized eight times the amount of methamphetamine, and almost seven times the amount of heroin, in 2020 compared to 2019.

Last month, two men were arrested after they were caught smuggling crystal meth, or ice, as refrigerated packs used to keep fresh crabs cold.



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