Officers with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at Dulles International Airport intercepted over 70 pounds of psychoactive drugs disguised as beauty products from China, officials say.
CBP officers at the Northern Virginia airport on June 26 found two boxes from China labeled with a Washington, D.C., address, purporting to contain beauty products, a press release from the CBP revealed.
Psychoactive drugs from China labeled as beauty products seize at Virginia airport https://t.co/lC3CdlMSUS
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 6, 2023
Upon inspection of the boxes, officers discovered that instead of beauty products, the contents contained multiple vacuum-sealed bags that contained a white, crystalized substance. Testing revealed the bags contained nearly 71 pounds of N,N-Dimethylpentylone Hydrochloride, a substituted cathinone considered to be a schedule I controlled substance, the release stated. (RELATED: American Airlines Mechanic Found Guilty Of Conspiring To Traffic Bricks Of Cocaine On Airplane: DOJ)
Cathinones, more commonly known as “bath salts”, can produce psychoactive and hallucinogenic effects similar to amphetamines, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH).
The shipment was seized by CBP officers who then turned it over to special agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for further investigation, the press release stated.
“The synthetic stimulant market tries to stay one step ahead of law enforcement by continually tweaking cathinone’s chemical compounds to create new, yet still dangerous, analogues. Customs and Border Protection officers remain committed to protecting our communities by detecting these new illicit psychoactive stimulants and working with our federal, state, and local partners to hold importers accountable,” Christine Waugh, Acting Area Port Director for CBP’s Area Port of Washington, D.C., stated in the press release.