A security screening at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport led to the discovery of suspected fentanyl, methamphetamine and ketamine hidden inside an Apple Mac mini desktop computer, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
The TSA said the passenger, whose identity has not been released, was passing through a security checkpoint when a lead officer noticed something strange on the X-ray scan: an unusual mass and wiring inside the computer casing. The discovery was detailed in an Oct. 9 TSA release.
Lead TSA Officer Logan Stortz made the initial find while screening the passenger’s carry-on bag. He said his first instinct was that it might be part of an internal agency test.
“Initially, I thought this might be a test run by one of the many levels of testing teams within TSA,” Stortz said. “When I found out it was drugs, I was very surprised.”
TSA Officer Isaiah Martinez Jr. searched the bag further and consulted with Stortz about the computer.
“I was in shock, noticed something was awry and immediately notified a supervisor,” Martinez said.
A second screening turned up a mass hidden beneath a concealed area of the computer along with signs the device had been tampered with, TSA said. An explosives specialist, Robert Rosas Perez II, then examined the machine and found plastic-wrapped material inside, including a crystallized substance and an orange pill-like item.
“I stopped all procedures at that point,” Perez said.
Officers called law enforcement to the checkpoint. Preliminary field-testing indicated the materials included suspected fentanyl, methamphetamine and ketamine, according to TSA. Phoenix police arrested the passenger at the scene.
Supervisory TSA Officer Emily Price called the method of concealment unusual.
“The way this was concealed was unusual,” Price said.
Perez said incidents like this one may not be as rare as travelers assume.
“This is probably not as uncommon as the public might think,” he said. “Every day, passengers attempt to bring illicit, illegal, prohibited or suspected illegal items through security checkpoints.”
TSA noted that its officers are primarily tasked with detecting weapons, explosives and other threats to aviation safety, not enforcing drug laws. When screeners come across suspected illegal drugs, they notify local law enforcement, as happened in this case at Sky Harbor.
