SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 11, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Police seized just over a half-pound of crystal methamphetamine passing for a tasty snack Thursday at the Salt Lake City International Airport.
Curiosity arose when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) noticed a suspicious jar of peanut butter during routine screening.
They notified members of the Salt Lake City Police Department’s Airport Division, reads a departmental press release on social media. TSA officials initially found a regular, consumer-sized, peanut butter jar filled with a crystalized substance. SLCPD Airport officers secured the luggage and detained two people as part of their investigation.
Officers, working with the SLCPD’s full-time detective assigned to the Airport Division, obtained a search warrant for the travelers’ belongings, police said, locating a second peanut butter jar, like the first, with crystal methamphetamine concealed inside.
Officers took both people to the Airport Operations Center to process the evidence and interview the two passengers. Officers arrested 61-year-old Melissa Hoching, booking her into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail on a charge of distribution of a controlled substance.
Police released the other person initially detained.
