Hey, drug traffickers make mistakes, too.

U.S. Postal Service TrucksA New Jersey man called police in October when he received several packages intended for someone else. When officers opened the misdirected boxes, they discovered 50 pounds of marijuana.

The accidental recipient, who lives in Hazlet on New Jersey’s northern shore, called local police in late October. The boxes were addressed to someone who doesn’t live at the resident’s address, and when officers opened them to identify the rightful recipient, they stumbled across the marijuana.

Valued at $100,000

The cannabis was confiscated by police and valued at about $100,000, said Hazlet Police Detective Ted Wittke. The department has opened an investigation to determine who sent the drugs or who was supposed to receive them.

Wittke made a tongue-in-cheek plea to the public: “If you were expecting these packages and would like to claim them, please come to Police Headquarters.”

This isn’t the first time a package of marijuana made its way to the wrong address. Last spring, an unknown smuggler sent several packages of processed cannabis to a Brooklyn deli.

Not the first time this has happened

Marijuana LeafThose boxes arrived at Kahan’s Superette, a kosher deli, in early April by way of the U.S. Postal Service. The marijuana was hidden in 10 vacuum-sealed peanut butter bags. The disguise failed to fool police in New York, who seized the packages and launched an investigation.

It’s not surprising a few packages of cannabis would go astray now and then. Drugs amount for a substantial percentage of U.S. mail, and the vast majority of these shipments go unnoticed. But mailing marijuana comes with significant risks, and the odds of getting caught are always fairly high.

That’s especially true with smugglers who operate on the fly. A risky job calls for careful risk-management strategies, but many traffickers view the game as nothing more than a quick way to get rich. And when they don’t pay attention to what they’re doing, they do stupid things – like mailing drugs to the wrong address.

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