US police seize 14 meth-filled 'burritos' from driver during routine traffic stop

Los Angeles police confiscated 14 "meth burritos" which were stuffed with 17 pounds of illegal drugs.

Drug dealers have long turned to creative means of smuggling illegal substances – from hiding them in a newborn baby's nappy to using orange tape to disguise more than a ton of marijuana as a shipment of carrots.

So police officers in the US city of Los Angeles weren't surprised last weekend when they discovered 14 foil-wrapped packages disguised to look like burritos that actually contained 17 pounds of methamphetamine.

"Narcotics dealers go to great lengths to conceal whatever narcotics it is they're trying to move from one location to another," said Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Meghan Aguilar. "Soda cans, books cut out in the middle. Only the imagination limits how far drug dealers will go."

Officers uncovered the meth "burritos" on Saturday evening during a traffic stop in Angelino Heights, Aguilar said. Ricardo Renteria, 46, was pulled over for multiple traffic violations, including erratic driving. Officers searched the car after Renteria failed to provide a valid driver's license, Aguilar said.

14 “burritos” and a gun off the streets thanks to #LAPD Rampart Officers. But these aren’t your typical burritos...these were filled with meth! https://t.co/EAct7r2NJO pic.twitter.com/3zSDWDrjWz

— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) February 4, 2018

In addition to the drugs, officers discovered a loaded handgun and a large amount of money, Aguilar said. It was not immediately clear how much money was found.

Renteria was charged with possession of narcotics and was being held in lieu of more than US$1 million (NZ$1.37 million) in bond, Aguilar said.

With Americans spending an estimated $100 billion (NZ$137 billion) a year on illegal drugs, traffickers' attempts to smuggle have seemingly become more inventive. Border agents in June found $5 million ($NZ6.85 million) worth of meth concealed in two trucks at the Texas border. One carried jalapeños, the other transported cucumbers, according to US Customs and Border Protection officials. In July, Texas border agents seized more than $900,000 (NZ$1.24 million) worth of marijuana and cocaine from a commercial trailer shipping tomatoes.

Other imaginative means of transporting drugs have involved catapults launching hundred-pound packages of marijuana over the border and doughnuts sprinkled with cocaine.

Few traffickers have disguised their narcotics as burritos – although an Arizona woman in 2016 smuggled a pound of meth worth more than $3000 (NZ$4115) inside actual burritos, according to US Customs and Border Protection officials.

And on Saturday, border agents arrested another Arizona woman crossing an immigration checkpoint with 10 ounces of heroin inside a blown-up condom, which was about the size of a burrito. Border agents estimate the drugs were worth about $7800 (NZ$10,700).

Should traffickers continue to model their smuggling techniques on burritos, Aguilar said, they might "hit at the heart of foodies everywhere."

"There's a great amount of attention when you try and make burritos the bad guy," she said.