A Missouri-bound shipment of "herbal pasta" turned out to contain a different kind of noodle-related product — containers of 17,000 illegally imported Viagra pills that, if sold, could have engorged someone's wallet with $1.2 million.
Instead, the shipment ran into a squeeze at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Cincinnati, where federal agents busted through the seemingly legal package to discover the criminal load within.
Along with the 41 pounds of pills, agents also found an additional 36 pounds of "miracle honey," which contains sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, according to a news release by CBP. The shipments hailed from Istanbul, Turkey.
Reached by email Friday, CBP spokesman Steve Bansbach said the shipment featured an individual address in Florissant, Missouri, near St. Louis, "but the problem is that most of these types of shipments that are destined to someone's apartment or a warehouse, then they will distribute them elsewhere."
"In this case," he added, "we don't know whether or not that address was valid."
No matter the package's final destination, right now someone in Florissant is probably worrying about their missed shipment — and federal charges that are much, much longer than four hours.
A version of this story was originally published by CityBeat sister paper The Riverfront Times.
