Record setting 1.7 tons of meth worth $1.29 billion seized at Los Angeles port - Sensationalist Headlines

https://abcnews.go.com/US/authorities-seize-record-setting-17-tons-meth-worth/story?id=60932466 A joint drug bust between Australian and U.S. authorities in mid-January resulted in a record 1.7 tons of methamphetamine being seized at Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport. Customs and Border Protection announced the seizure of the three containers on Thursday, which were intended to be shipped to Australia before being searched on Jan. 11. The containers were filled with speakers "artfully" stuffed with the drugs. In addition to the 3,810 pounds of meth, the shipment also contained 55.9 pounds of cocaine and 11.5 pounds of heroin. Australian officials said the total street value of the haul was $1.29 billion. The bust is the third major seizure announced by U.S. authorities in a matter of weeks. CBP announced the largest-ever fentanyl bust on Jan. 31. Authorities seized 254 pounds of fentanyl, a powerful opioid, worth about $3.5 million at the Nogales Port of Entry in Arizona. Just two days later, the Maricopa, Arizona, County Sheriff's Office announced they had seized 3,500 pounds of marijuana and over 220 pounds of meth near Gila Bend when two trucks swerved around a border patrol check and tried to elude authorities in a desert chase.

Imagine losing a shipment worth $1.3 BILLION dollars And no insurance

I don't trust street values from cops because $200 worth of weed becomes $1500 "street value" in a bust. But still, 1.7 tons of any drug is a massive operation. Also this drug bust happened at a port of entry, just like the Nogales and Gila Bend busts the story references. So much for that excuse for the wall.

Ohhh shiiiit, some drug baron is so pissed that he called R&D at some place to develop the ultimate weapon to "send messages".

Cartels will begin developing gun-type plutonium bombs to get rid of those pesky customs authorities.

first they're gonna off the poor guy that lost all of that "poor" because the guy is just gonna be completely disintegrated by the cartel in the worst way possible, but hey, karma or something

I’ve always wondered how authorites dispose of the drugs.

fire, usually

BUT THE WALLLLL

Holy shit, Walt & Jessie were working overtime.

The proper way

Going on a binge and staying up for five days with no sleep while railing fat lines of meth every few hours?

Most of them do, and so do most busts. It's easier to try and conceal it while going through a checkpoint that processes thousands of vehicles a day than it is to dodge sensors and patrols in the desert.

Is this the drug plot LMAO Pics was meme-ing about?

Okay, so I did the Meth Math and it appears that the price was, of course, inflated. A 'hit' of meth is on average, one fourth of a gram. There are 907,185 grams in a US ton, and that comes out to about 6,168,000 hits for 1.7 US tons. Let's imagine this is high quality meth, so the price may be around $80 per hit. That leaves us with 493,440,000 or, basically just 38.2% of the estimate in the OP.

Back when my dad worked with Customs he had some of his guys nearly killed after opening contraband canisters boobytrapped with chlorine gas. He's also had a $25,000 hit put out on him and his dog after a drug bust. These people are dangerous and evil.

But then the Earth is smoking meth and that ain't good for the Earth

That didn't sound right at all to me, so I looked it up. You're way off, that's a dangerously huge dose. Erowid Methamphetamine Vault

It was the value quoted by Australian authorities. Meth is probably more expensive here.

I'm super glad that this bust was successful, but I'm worried what the cartels are going to do in retaliation.

fuck I knew I shouldn't have finalised early

Should've turned left at Albuquerque

Probably nothing at all. These cartels operates as business, they're well aware a portion will be intercepted by sheer bad luck.

Holy fuck, no wonder they were trying to ship it all the way to Australia.

The cost of transporting it all the way to Australia, through so many layers of security, is what drives up the price. BC marijuana used to be considered some of the best bud in the world and was traded weight for weight on par with cocaine in Columbia -- because that bud travelled all the way over the US and Central America plus however many South American countries before reaching a domestic dealer and was snuck past probably dozens of security measures by dozens of people who'll never meet each other. If you could've just packed up a bundle and shipped it airmail it'd probably have not even doubled in value from shipping overheads.