14 DAY TRIAL // Drug dealers are nothing if not imaginative when it comes to finding new hiding places for their stashes. For instance, it was not long ago that a whole lot of meth was recovered from under a huge pile of broccoli bags.
Apparently, the man whose stash this was wrongly assumed that no cop would ever become suspicious of broccoli. After all, this is one of the healthiest and, therefore, most innocent vegetables out there.
How the crystal meth was discovered
The officers who found the meth say that, last weekend, at around 2:45 in the morning on Saturday, they stopped a truck driving through the city of Phoenix in Arizona, US, for a traffic violation.
Rather than simply fine the driver or give him a warning and then let him go, they thought it a good idea to have a look at what 39-year-old Ata Hamed Taha was carrying in the trailer attached to his truck.
When the man let them inside the trailer, the officers came across a whole lot of broccoli bags. Or so they first assumed. At a closer look, it became obvious that the man was transporting more than just everybody's favorite veggies sauté ingredient.
Long story short, they found an impressive 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of crystal meth neatly arranged inside a duffel bag that was hidden from view under broccoli bags.
It is estimated that the crystal meth recovered from 39-year-old Atam Hamed Taha's truck is worth about $440,000 (€386,000). It is unclear whether the man was just transporting it or wanted to sell it himself.
The driver is in serious trouble
The NY Daily News tells us that, after the police officers found the crystal meth hidden inside his truck, 39-year-old Atam Hamed Taha was taken into custody. Soon enough, he was looking at the world from behind the bars of a cell at the Maricopa County Jail.
It is understood that the man now faces charges for possession and transportation of drugs for sale, conspiracy and control of an illegal enterprise. If found guilty - and, let's face it, this will most likely happen - odds are that he will remain in prison for quite a while.
