Feds sieze smuggled opium at SFO

A box of soap delivered to San Francisco International Airport from Thailand was hiding nearly 9 pounds of opium, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Monday.

The box containing 66 bars of individually packaged soap was received by the international mail facility at the airport on Sept. 9. After putting it through an x-ray machine, officials opened it for a closer look.

They cut open one of the bars of soap and discovered it had been hollowed out and stuffed with a ball of opium, customs officials said. Each bar contained a ball of opium and officials found 8.9 pounds of it in all.

Customs and Border Protection spokesman Frank Falcon said this morning that the opium was seized but he couldn’t discuss who it was destined for or whether there had been any arrests in the case.