Green Bay Lady Finds Drugs Inside Vacuum Cleaner Refurbished in Juarez

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I just had to share.  Now I'm going to have to go to the El Paso Times' website every day for the latest wild and crazy story. 

I used to know people, who, if you vacuumed their homes, the bag would be filled with weed.  But to find coke and meth in a packaged vacuum cleaner is unbelievable!  From the Green Bay Press Gazette and reprinted by the El Paso Times.

Woman finds drugs packed inside vacuum

By Doug Schneider • dschneid@greenbaypressgazette.com • January 15, 2011

   

On the first day of Christmas, my children gave to me … a vacuum cleaner packaged with $280,000 worth of drugs.

Investigators say a Green Bay woman got quite a surprise Dec. 25 when she opened the refurbished vacuum cleaner she'd been given, and discovered two pounds of crystal methamphetamine and 2.2 pounds of cocaine packaged inside the box.

"This was an 'are you kidding me' incident," said Lt. David Poteat, who heads the Brown County Drug Task Force.

It's likely that a smuggler inserted the drugs into the vacuum cleaner box before the unit was shipped from the Juarez, Mexico, area, where it had been reconditioned, Poteat said. No one, including the Green Bay retailer who sold the vacuum, noticed anything amiss, he said, until the woman opened the package and called police.

Authorities say they're convinced the woman played no part in the drug shipment, and don't plan to charge her. They aren't identifying the woman, or the store where the vacuum was purchased, while the case is under investigation.

Poteat said criminals use a variety of ways to get drugs into the Green Bay market, including sneaking them into packages containing other items.

"Meth, in general, has not been a significant issue for us," he added. "But cocaine has remained strong in this area" of Wisconsin.

Last year, the task force, which operates primarily in Brown County, seized drugs with an estimated street value of $2.65 million â€" up significantly compared with 2009 figures. Cocaine seizures totaled 8.7 pounds. Meth seizures totaled 1.9 pounds.