Agents found 30 brick-like packages of cocaine inside the backpacks, located in a wooded area in Washington near the U.S. border with Canada.
Summary
U.S. Border Patrol agents discovered two backpacks containing $1.1 million worth of cocaine in a wooded area near Lynden, Washington, close to the Canadian border.
The backpacks held 30 brick-like packages of cocaine, which were tested and handed over to the DEA for processing.
Officials did not report any arrests connected to the discovery.
So the USBP doesn't practically patrol regular routes at regular times? And the people smuggling $1.1 million in cocaine across the US-Canada border don't know those routes and times? And the smugglers happened to accidentally leave that much contraband laying around and disappeared with miles and miles of woods while USBP is patrolling? And they left it on the route to be easily found by some government employee just doing their routine? And the USBP agent just happened to be paying attention enough at the right time to spot 2 black backpacks? And when they checked, they found $1.1 million worth of cocaine inside? And no one was arrested in connection to that much cocaine just laying around at a border?
Yep, nothing else to investigate here. Pack it up, boys.
Go look at street view of that area. I drive it all the time. It's a ditch and bush or open farm land along most of it. They use motion sensors and cameras to monitor most of it and patrols are random. They get dispatched to areas of interest.
They probably saw some motion or cameras picked something up, then go check it out and boom drugs. Dudes who left it probably should of used more appropriate coloured bags.
The USBP might randomize patrol times for this reason. If it's looking like you guessed wrong and will almost certainly get caught, then it's better to be caught without the coke.
Yes, the police will be happy to give you the address of the station where you can locate the cocaine. In fact, they encourage you to come claim it as quickly as possible. Don't forget to bring your ID along so they know you're the legitimate claimant or you definitely won't get it back.
How did that get arranged? Did the druggies like get the idea of smuggling backwards? You're supposed to try and get across the border WITH the stuff, not leave them there thinking "ah it'll be fine if we left them there, we needed to offload some weight". Because now they're probably going to come back, realize the bags are gone and be like "oh shit we dumb".
Like, "dead drops" have a lot of good reasons to be a thing. If you're snuggling over a million worth of coke between Canada and America, it's not a small time operation, they might do this weekly. It's better to lose product than someone get caught and talk or a handoff goes wrong.
Could even be a distraction from something bigger. Drug smugglers are amazingly crafty and innovative. They have to be in order to keep the product flowing.