Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that a California man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for allegedly attempting to check two suitcases with methamphetamine-soaked apparel, including a cow pajama onesie.
According to a Department of Justice news release, Raj Matharu, 31, has been charged by prosecutors with one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Matharu’s arraignment in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles is set for Monday.
On a $10,000 bond, he is at liberty.
“Drug dealers are continually inventing creative ways of smuggling dangerous narcotics in pursuit of illicit profit — as alleged in the facts of this case,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada stated. “In the process, they are poisoning communities throughout the world. Law enforcement is committed to fighting drug trafficking, knowing that every seizure saves lives.”
On November 6, Matharu tried to check two pieces of luggage, a gray suitcase and a pink suitcase, as he was getting ready to board a late-night United Airlines aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, according to court filings. After finding “an anomaly,” screening agents X-rayed the bags and removed them for “secondary inspection.”
A criminal complaint filed in the Central District of California claims that when police officers unzipped the suitcases, they discovered a variety of “white or light-colored clothing items that were dried rigid and covered in a white substance.” When officers analyzed a sample of the residue on the field, they found meth in it.
The apparel items saturated in meth weighed about 71.5 pounds in total.
Five white T-shirts, eight pairs of women’s underwear, nineteen pairs of socks, two sports bras, three tank tops, two towels, one cardigan sweater, one hoodie, one fleece sweater, the onesie pajama, and two sweaters were discovered to have white residue inside the pink luggage by Customs and Border Protection officials.
Two towels, six pairs of socks, five boxers, seven tank tops, one pair of sweatpants, two pairs of trousers, four hoodies, one polo shirt, two button-up shirts, and one long sleeve top were discovered by officers in the gray bag to have white residue on them.
“I believe in this instance the white methamphetamine was ‘washed’ into the white clothing and left to dry,” Homeland Security Investigations agent Megan Palmer wrote in a sworn declaration.
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“Based on my training and experience,” Palmer continued, “I know that over time in a room temperature or cold environment, the solution would evaporate and then the powdered methamphetamine would separate from the shirt, forming a white residue.”
The criminal complaint states that on the morning of November 7, Matharu was apprehended at a LAX boarding gate and placed under arrest. He faces a statutory maximum sentence of life in prison and a required minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison if found guilty.
