Ok so I found this story online....

- INTELLIGENCE BRIEF -

LARGE MODEL ROCKET (SEIZED FROM A VEHICLE IN MISSOURI) USED TO CONCEAL - AND POTENTIALLY DISCARD - ICE METHAMPHETAMINE

[From the NDIC Narcotics Digest Weekly 2005;4(36):2
Unclassified, Reprinted with Permission.]



On July 15, 2005, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri announced the federal grand jury indictment of two Kentucky men on charges that they had conspired to distribute methamphetamine. The two Caucasian males had obtained ice methamphetamine from Mexican sources of supply in Omaha (NE) and were transporting the drugs to Louisville (KY) for distribution. The 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. The trooper and a backup officer apprehended the men, searched the vehicle, and discovered the rocket as well as devices that appeared to be pipe bombs hidden in the trunk. Officers with the MSHP bomb squad and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were called to the scene and determined that the devices were PVC pipes constructed to resemble pipe bombs. Officers seized 2 pounds of ice methamphetamine concealed in the hobby rocket, the 2 grams of methamphetamine that the driver had tossed after fleeing the vehicle, 38 grams of ice methamphetamine that had been concealed in the three PVC pipes, and 14 grams that had been concealed in a false-bottomed can, as well as 105 hydrocodone, 41 Viagra (sildenafil citrate), 39 Xanax (alprazolam), 32 Cialis (tadalafil), and 7 Klonopin (clonazepam) tablets, and $13,534.


NDIC Comment: Drug distributors often use creative methods to conceal drugs during transportation but rarely develop such an elaborate means of discarding the drugs in the event of law enforcement interdiction. This scheme indicates the extent to which traffickers will go to protect drug shipments.