Agents bust opium shipment at O’Hare

Federal agents at O’Hare International Airport have seized nearly 9 pounds of opium hidden in wicker baskets that were shipped from Laos and headed for Minnesota.

Two parcels labeled as “Handy Crafts” and “Sticky Rice Baskets” alerted a drug-sniffing dog named Allen at the Chicago O’Hare Foreign Mail Facility on Monday, which led agents to the opium, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Wednesday.

A customs officer opened the packages and found a number of unusually heavy and thick wicker baskets, which upon an x-ray screening showed “unusual densities.”

Customs officers cut the baskets open and found a black, tar substance wrapped in plastic that was woven between the layers of wicker, the agency said.

The total weight of the opium headed for the Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., areas was 8.73 pounds.

“Smugglers have months and years to devise and conceive ways to try to defeat our enforcement efforts,” said David J. Murphy, Customs and Border Protection director of field operations in Chicago. “However, our trained officers, and in this case our four-legged partners, have the nose to ferret this out.”

The agency is investigating the shippers and recipients of the packages, but no arrests have been made.