57 Pounds Of Drugs Siezed In PA: Federal Authorities

PHILADELPHIA — Nearly 5 dozen pounds of ketamine was seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Philadelphia recently, according to federal authorities.

The drugs were found June 21 and June 27.

Officers in Philadelphia inspected a parcel manifested as fishing rods being shipped from the Netherlands to Miami on June 21.

In the parcel, officers found a white crystalline substance inside six small plastic buckets in the parcel. The six buckets weighed 12.69 kilograms, just under 28 pounds.

The substance was tested using a handheld elemental isotope analysis tool and identified as ketamine hydrochloride.

Then on June 27, officers seized four shipments that arrived from Germany. Each were manifested as containing other items, such as toys, replacement rollers, or picture frames, and were destined to separate addresses in Broward County, Florida.

Inside two of the four parcels, found discovered eight vacuum-sealed bags of a white crystalline substance concealed inside boxes supposed to contain toys. In the other two parcels, they found five vacuum-sealed bags of a white crystalline product concealed inside the backing of picture frames.

Collectively, these 13 vacuum-sealed bags weighed 13.225 kilograms or 29 pounds and two ounces. These substances also tested positive for ketamine hydrochloride.

Collectively, the 57 pounds, two ounces of ketamine had a street value of about $1.5 million.

Authorities said ketamine hydrochloride is an animal anesthetic dangerously abused by users and sexual predators.

According to the DEA, ketamine hydrochloride is a Schedule III non-narcotic compound regulated under the Controlled Substances Act. It is commonly known on the street as Special K, Donkey Dust, and Cat Killer, and is smoked, snorted, or mixed in beverages. It is used lawfully in both human and veterinary medicine to induce sedation, immobility, and relief from pain.

Unprescribed, ketamine is abused by users for its ability to induce dissociative sensations and hallucinations like that induced by phencyclidine (PCP). Ketamine is often cut or combined with other dangerous compounds, such as ecstasy, and abused at raves and dance clubs, and it has been used by sexual predators to incapacitate their victims during sexual assaults. Overdoses can lead to serious health threats, such as nausea, elevated heart rate, unconsciousness, convulsions, and respiratory failure.

"Ketamine is a very dangerous anesthetic that can seriously harm abusers and unsuspecting victims, and so it’s an illicit drug that Customs and Border Protection officers take immense pleasure at intercepting before it can reach our communities," Cleatus P. Hunt, Jr., Area Port Director for CBP’s Area Port of Philadelphia, said. "CBP remains committed to combatting drug trafficking organizations by seizing their poisonous shipments at our nation’s ports of entry."