Meth Found Hidden In Picture Frames Shipped To Pittsburgh Store From Mexico

US customs officers told the Associated Press on Saturday that they found a kilogram of methamphetamine ensconced in two large picture frames of religious artwork bound from Mexico to a store in Pittsburgh. The package, according to federal court documents made public on Friday, was intercepted by customs officials at a shipping facility in Memphis just last week. The frames were discovered to be hollow; inside, officers uncovered long black packages filled with white powder that turned out to be meth.

The discovery by customs officials also netted an arrest after a bit of undercover police work. According to the AP, a Pennsylvania state police trooper arrived to the Pittsburgh store working undercover as a parcel delivery man and let the store owner sign for the package. Court documents indicate that another man, Carmel Rojas-Perez, picked it up about four hours later. He was then arrested, and is currently being held without bail on drug smuggling charges. The AP reports that Rojas-Perez's federal public defender declined to comment for the story.

As US demand for cocaine continues to drop, Mexican drug cartels have begun to rely more heavily on meth as a source of income. Contrary to what's often assumed, most of the drug isn't smuggled across the border through the desert or other rural zones, but rather hidden in passenger cars which cross through regular ports of entry on the US-Mexico border. It especially comes across through San Diego crossings: as much as 70 percent of it, and the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says there has occurred a 300 percent increase in seizures at San Diego ports of entry since 2008. In the last five years, three times more meth was seized at San Diego ports of entry than all other US-Mexico border crossings combined. And Mexican drug cartels, which for decades had supplied much of the raw ingredients needed to make it, began in the 1990s to produce it themselves. Now, more than 80 percent of the meth seized in the United States is produced in Mexico, especially by the Sinaloa drug cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. In February 2012, the New York Times reported the seizure of 15 tons in pure powder form - about $4 billion worth - at a ranch outside Guadalajara by Mexican authorities.

Methamphetamine users can become addicted quite quickly, and aside from causing weight loss and heart and dental problems, it can also provoke fits of something akin to psychosis because users sometimes go for long periods of time without sleeping.

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