Smuggler Conceals Meth In Snickers Bars – as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

Drug dealers are constantly coming with new ways to conceal the illegal substances, keeping the authorities on their toes. A 34-year-old man from Long Beach was busted at the Los Angeles International Airport, while trying to board a flight to Japan. Federal customs officials discovered more than four pounds of methamphetamine stashed away in candy bars. Agents found a large box in the man’s luggage during inspection and opened it to find 45 separately wrapped Snickers bars. Underneath the wrapper, the bars were covered in what investigators called a “chocolate-like” coating to make it look like the real thing.

There was approximately 1,900 grams of meth recovered, all concealed under the fake chocolate coating with an estimated street value in Japan of $250,000. The man has been charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Officials say that the candy bar scheme is a new idea from drug smugglers. According to the Wall Street Journal; “Others have involved using Easter eggs, snack food bags and cans of refried beans to disguise the substances.”

Snickers Owner to Invest in Kind, Third-Biggest Maker of Snack Bars
Mars will operate Kind’s international operations and make use of Mars’s own enormous worldwide distribution network to make
and market Kind products in countries like China, where Mars has over 2.3 million distribution points.
Mars, the privately held company best known for its confectionary brands like M&M’s and Snickers, plans to announce on Wednesday
that it will buy a minority stake in Kind, the maker of wildly popular snack bars.
Mr. Reid, who has spent nearly 30 years at Mars, said he had explored acquiring or making an investment in a health
and wellness food company for the past several years.
Last month, Kellogg announced that it will buy the maker of RX Bars, a popular protein-heavy line of snack bars, for $600 million.
And while Mars is best known for sweets, a huge part of its business is in pet care,
both in the sale of pet food and services like its Banfield pet hospitals.
The company has already been inching in this direction: Last year, it announced plans to remove artificial
colors from its food portfolio, which besides candy includes products like Uncle Ben’s Rice.
For Mars, which is the sixth-largest privately held company in the United States, the deal offers a toehold into a world
that touts the use of almonds, chia seeds, amaranth and buckwheat as selling points.