A 10-year-old child in Georgia accidentally found illegal drugs inside a toy box that was purchased from a consignment store in South Carolina.
The Lego set was reportedly bought by three women in a store in Charleston. They then brought it back with them to Bulloch County in Georgia.
Lt. Jim Riggs, a spokesman from the Bulloch County Sheriff's Office, said the toy set contained as much as 3.2 pounds of methamphetamine, a highly addictive and illegal psychostimulant drug known to target the central nervous system. It is believed to have a street value of about $40,000.
He explained that the drug was packaged when it was found and did not pose a danger to the child.
"Neither the three women nor the South Carolina consignment shop were aware of the meth and were not held responsible," Riggs told local reporters.
Meth In A Child's Toy Box
The Lego set was said to be shrink wrapped, making it look like it came straight from the toy factory. With the help of agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, authorities decided that the contraband may have been intentionally mailed to the wrong address before it ended up on the consignment store.
Riggs noted that the meth could be from somebody who tried to package the illegal drugs in the toy box to conceal it.
Drug dealers are known to transport their products illegally, purposefully sending packages to empty or abandoned addresses and then have someone pick them up.
However, since no one is actually living in these addresses, the United States Postal Service will not be able to complete the delivery. Riggs said. postal workers would often take the package back to the post office for safekeeping instead of leaving them to neighbors.
If no one claims the packages, the U.S. Postal Service would have them auctioned off, which Riggs described as similar to the popular TV show Storage Wars.
The DEA believes this may have been the case with the meth package in the Lego box, which wound up in the toy section of the consignment store in Charleston and eventually into the hands of the 10-year-old boy in Bulloch County.
Officials from Bulloch County are now working with the DEA to find out if there are other similar incidents of illegal drug packages in toys in the area.
What Is Methamphetamine?
The stimulant drug methamphetamine can often be found either in powder or pill form, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
Crystal methamphetamine is a version of the illegal drug that resembles glass fragments or shiny, bluish-white rocks. It is similar in chemical composition to amphetamine, a drug typically used to treat people suffering from narcolepsy or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Methamphetamine is commonly referred to using its other names such as chalk, crank, crystal, ice, speed, or the shortened meth.
People consume meth in several different ways such as smoking or inhaling, snorting, injecting the dissolved power, or swallowing as in the case of the pill.
The "high" that users get often starts and fades quickly, which is why they tend to take repeated doses of meth in a "binge and crash" manner.
There is also another practice called "run," where drug addicts would give up food and sleep and would consume meth for several hours or even days.
