Bananas donated to a Texas prison turn out to be $18 million of cocaine
No, this is not an episode of Breaking Bad. This is real life.
On Friday, Sept. 21, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) posted on Facebook about a drug mix up that sounds like it has just as wild a story behind it as the hit AMC TV series.
The department received 45 boxes of donated bananas from Ports of America in Freeport near the Gulf of Mexico. But it turns out the donation was a greater gift than either organization could have imagined, containing an additional 540 packages of cocaine, valued at nearly $18 million.
"Sometimes, life gives you lemons. Sometimes, it gives you bananas," the TDCJ post joked.
According to the post, the discovery was made by two of its sergeants after they noticed "something not quite right" with the boxes after they were unloaded. Once they started pulling apart these suspicious boxes, they discovered a white powdery substance and notified port authorities.
Sure enough, when life handed them bananas, it was actually a shit ton of cocaine.
Not many other details are known about this bizarre turn of events. But the TDCJ assured its followers that the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Customs, and Border Protection were now investigating into the matter.
I guess we'll have to wait for the Season 6 of Breaking Bad that's never happening to fully understand the plot twist of sending a massive cache of illegal drugs to a literal prison.
Jess is an LA-based culture critic who covers intimacy in the digital age, from sex and relationship to weed and all media (tv, games, film, the web). Previously associate editor at Kill Screen, you can also find her words on Vice, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vox, and others. She is a Brazilian-Swiss American immigrant with a love for all things weird and magical.
