Meth dealers use model rocket to hide drugs

Each month, the Drug Enforcement Administration publishes a must-read journal, called The Microgram. Focusing mainly on the methods drug dealers use to conceal their inventory, The Microgram is a mind-bending testament to human inventiveness.

The October issue has photos and a report on an item we mentioned in July in bb: a model rocket loaded with meth, set up to launch into the air when cops opened the dealers' car trunk.

 Dea Programs Forensicsci Microgram Mg1005 Mg1005 Fig13The men concealed the ice methamphetamine in the body of a motorized, 3-foot hobby rocket connected by wires to the vehicle's cigarette lighter (see Photo 12). If stopped by law enforcement officers en route to their destination, they planned to open the trunk of the vehicle, raise the methamphetamine-filled rocket into launching position using a string and pulley system, and launch the rocket into the air (see Photo 13). The two men had tested a similar rocket filled with 2 pounds of gravel that reached a height of about 1,200 feet and, based on the results of that test, expected the plastic bags containing the ice methamphetamine to melt or disintegrate and the drugs to scatter into the air. On June 24, 2005, the men had an opportunity to test their device when a Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) trooper attempted to stop their vehicle on Interstate 70 in Callaway County. The vehicle exited the interstate and entered a restaurant parking lot; however, the two men failed to activate the rocket. The driver then fled the vehicle and discarded a small bag containing approximately 2 grams of methamphetamine, while the passenger remained in the vehicle.

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