Each day, more than half a million pieces of mail come from overseas through a facility at Kennedy Airport, and Customs agents must unravel the ever-changing secrets of the smugglers.
Agents have found liquid cocaine inside ballpoint pens, heroin inside lima beans and the handles of purses.
Drugs have been hidden in machine parts, photo albums, shoes and bottles of honey, said Chief Bill Rivera of Customs and Border Protection.
“Any method, any way they can think of to try and get it past CBP they will try to do," he said.
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Authorities say they seized thousands of illegal items in 2012.
Rivera said his team has to stay one step ahead of the smugglers.
“You have to think like a smuggler. You have to look at items in a way that how would they secrete these items to get it past us," said Rivera.
