It looks like a yummy-looking batch of homemade cookies that would sell for $5.
But these treats had a secret ingredient — cocaine — and a street value of $52,000.
A New Jersey man was busted at Newark Liberty International Airport after he tried to smuggle 118 pellets of cocaine into the US baked in a batch of cookies, authorities said Thursday.
Mauricio Isidro Rivera Hernandez, 30, a Guatemalan citizen who had been living in Plainfield, NJ, arrived on a flight from Guatemala City when a routine search of his luggage turned up the tainted treats, they said.
Officers hauled Hernandez off to a private search area and gave the cookies a closer look.
Inside, they found small, suspicious-looking oval-shaped pellets containing a white powder, which tested positive for cocaine.
A US Customs and Border Protection official said the agency’s eagle-eyed sleuths are always on the lookout for contraband in kooky places.
“CBP officers remain ever vigilant in protecting the United States from the distribution of these dangerous drugs, regardless of the concealment methods employed by these would-be smugglers,” said Robert Perez, director of CBP’s New York field operations.
In May, a man arriving at JFK Airport from Guyana tried to hide 18 pounds of cocaine in packages of custard mix.
In April, a man was busted at JFK after allegedly trying to smuggle 7 pounds of cocaine inside frozen goat meat on a flight from Trinidad.
Last December, a woman arrived at JFK aboard a flight from Santo Domingo with 6 pounds of cocaine hidden inside her hair-care products, customs officials said.
Hernandez, who was busted June 5, faces state narcotics charges.