Over 10,000 Xanax pills found hidden in spools of yarn at Philadelphia port: CBP

PHILADELPHIA - Customs and Border Patrol officers in Philadelphia found over 10k Xanax pills after noticing "unusually heavy" spools of yarn inside a shipment from the Netherlands.

Officers were alerted in late-April about incoming cargo after experts at the Baltimore Field Office "suspected something maybe amiss with the shipment."

Investigators noticed "anomalies" during an x-ray scan of the cargo, and opened the shipment to find a dozen spools of yarn that were "unusually heavy.:

Officers unraveled the yard and found stacks of 10-pill blister packs taped to the inner spool. In total, they found over 1,000 packs of 1mg dose Alprazolam.

The shipment, according to agents, was destined for an address in Brooklyn and had an estimated street value of about $30,000.

Alprazolam, commonly known as Xanax, is a controlled substance and a commonly prescribed psychotropic medication to manage panic and anxiety disorders.

Alprazolam is misused as a recreational drug, and when combined with other substances, such as alcohol, can slow breathing and possibly lead to death, experts said.

"Transnational criminal organizations take enormous steps to conceal their illicit products hoping to evade detection; however, Customs and Border Protection trade experts and officers are exceptionally skilled at identifying potentially anomalous shipments and detecting unique concealment methods," CBP’s Area Port Director for the Area Port of Philadelphia said.