Man Caught Traveling With 80 Pounds of Weed Disguised as Christmas Presents

Cannabis culture includes a long, rich, and often times very interesting history of smuggling. And in many cases, these stories involve all sorts of creative methods for sneaking weed where it is not allowed.

Looks like this history has another incident to add to the books. This time, a man attempting to fly out of Nashville International Airport was caught with weed wrapped up to look like Christmas gifts.

Busted With Fake Presents

According to the Associated Press, the man who was allegedly trying to sneak the weed through the airport is 57 year old Somphone Temmeraj.

The man in question had reportedly flown from Seattle, Washington to Nashville, Tennessee. It is not entirely clear if Temmeraj was staying in Nashville, or simply transferring to another flight.

But one way or another, officers in the airport saw Temmeraj load his three bags onto a cart. The only problem was that the bags apparently smelled very strongly of marijuana. So much so, in fact, that reports indicate that both police officers and their K-9 units smelled it.

When officers approached Temmeraj, the man voluntarily let the cops search his bags. Inside were what appeared a bunch of wrapped Christmas presents.

But inside the holiday wrapping paper, the “gifts” were actually vacuum-sealed bags of weed. In total, Temmeraj was trying to transport 84 pounds of cannabis.

After discovering what was inside the packages, authorities arrested Temmeraj. He was then booked into jail in Nashville, and by Tuesday morning he had posted bail to be released.

It is unclear what will happen next for Temmeraj. The AP reported that there is no official word yet if he has a lawyer. And for now, Temmeraj has not issued any public statements.

Smuggling Weed Requires Creativity

There is nothing new about people coming up with creative ways to disguise weed for the purposes of smuggling it. In fact, there are numerous instances of exactly that.

Interesting examples include a woman tried to smuggle weed and meth into a jail by hiding it inside a bible. After arriving for visiting hours, the woman asked if she could give the bible to an inmate. A routine check of the book by a prison guard immediately found the hidden weed and meth. Needless to say, this attempt did not succeed.

In a somewhat similar story, smugglers created packets of weed shaped like carrots. They then wrapped the packages with orange tape and hid them inside a shipping truck. The shipment of fake, weed-filled carrots was eventually discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the Pharr International Bridge in Pharr, Texas.

And while weed smugglers often go the route of trying to disguise their herb, others focus on creative ways of transporting weed without detection.

For example, a couple years ago, somebody got caught trying to sneak weed into a prison with a drone.

Similarly, a smuggler in the Southwest tried to sneak weed between Mexico and Arizona by way of a zip line. The zip line was apparently high enough of the ground to clear border fences in the area.