No “snow” for Christmas at LAX! :-)
Tonight, it looks like a winter storm starting tomorrow night will bring heavy snowfall to the mountains of California.
But in Los Angeles, there was not as much “snow” as expected over the holidays…. 
Someone thought that it might be easy to smuggle 14 POUNDS (6.35 kg) of cocaine (a.k.a. “snow“) into LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) after a week-long trip in Columbia.
He was (allegedly) wrong!
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents (nice job, folks!) thought that it was odd for a traveler to bring in pastel-colored Easter egg candies two days before Christmas. Sorry! Wrong holiday!
When agents cut into the candies, they found a white, powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine! The remainder of the cocaine was concealed under the cardboard false bottom of a paper shopping bag. All in all, the cocaine weighed more than 14 pounds!
The cocaine has a street value of more than $100,000!
Esteban Galtes, 23, of Miami, Florida, was being held without bail being set today after he asked a federal court in Los Angeles to continue his Monday hearing until Wednesday, said Virginia Kice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. Galtes’ attorney could not be reached for comment this evening.
Galtes said that the Easter eggs were for his two children. Galtes is charged with importation of a controlled substance, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, according to authorities.
Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles said in a statement quoted by CNN:
“Drug traffickers are always trying novel ways to conceal their contraband.” “But cocaine camouflaged as Easter candy is one of the more unusual tactics we’ve come across. Obviously two days before Christmas, this defendant didn’t expect his trip would end with federal officers conducting an Easter egg hunt.”
(These are OBVIOUSLY not the federal agents who “… have no sense of humor that we are aware of.” – Agent K [Tommy Lee Jones], “Men in Black”
-Bill at
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