LOUISVILLE, Ky.–In separate incidents, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Louisville stopped two shipments from reaching their final destination. One shipment contained cocaine while the other shipment contained methamphetamine.

On November 7, officers inspected a package coming from Mexico, in route to North Carolina. The shipment listed wood baskets as its contents, but upon inspection the officers found two bricks of a white substance. The substance was identified as cocaine, weighing more than five pounds. CBP turned over the shipment to Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) Louisville office. The shipment was turned over to the state police, and deputies in Monroe County, N.C. who late arrested an individual connected to this seizure.

On November 11, a shipment of candles was held for inspection. The shipment was coming from Mexico headed to Georgia. Officers used wooden skewers to poke holes in the 13 candles in the box. In each candle was a large bag containing a white powder, which tested positive for methamphetamine. The drugs with candles weighed almost 18 pounds. HSI Louisville turned over the shipment to HSI Atlanta who arrested one individual.

CBP executes a multi-layered, risk-based approach to border security and narcotics interdiction designed to extend our zone of security outward. CBP’s layered approach includes sharing information with our U.S. and foreign law enforcement partners, implementing security measures across the global supply chain, leveraging risk-based targeting and intelligence-driven strategies on imports, and deploying narcotics detector dogs and non-intrusive inspection technology at our ports of entry. An important element of CBP’s layered security strategy is obtaining advance information to intercept shipments that pose a potentially higher risk of containing contraband. Timely information sharing is critical in targeting and interdicting narcotics shipments, as well as identifying individuals who move drugs from the ports of entry to their destinations throughout the United States.

CBP routinely conducts inspection operations on arriving and departing international flights and intercepts narcotics, weapons, currency, prohibited agriculture products, counterfeit goods, and other illicit items at our nation’s 328 international ports of entry.