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Food

Carrying Tofu In Your Suitcase Can Land You In Jail in Russia

At least 34 Chinese passengers were detained late last week after officers found large amounts of a white substance in their suitcases—not meth, but tofu.
Photo via Flickr user Mr.TinDC

People try to bring a lot of crazy shit through airports—there's no doubt about that. Get thee to the TSA's Instagram account if you need further proof. Knives, guns, hatchets, ninja stars, swords, and even live Chihuahuas have shown up in passengers' luggage as of late. And for trying to haul a tomahawk onto a 747, you very well might be hassled, if not detained.

But recently, some passengers at Russia's Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow were held up for supposedly being in possession of some giant bricks of meth—that turned out to be anything but.

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At least 34 Chinese passengers were detained late last week after security officers found large amounts of a white substance carried in their suitcases. Supposing it to be meth, the Russian Federal Customs Service flipped its lid, squealing to the Russian Media that they had discovered "a mass attempt of smuggling over 500 pounds of methamphetamine." The only issue was that they were not looking at high-grade speed, but deconstructed tofu.

With the accused meth dealers in the clink, the authorities tested the "meth" for its purity, only to be discovered that it was actually a powdered soy ingredient used in the tofu-making process. Russia begrudgingly started releasing the passengers— who are employees of a tofu company in Northwest China's Hei Longjiang province—yesterday. Oops.

This isn't the first time that the coppers have tried to make a meth bust and instead ended up in a (food) mess. In 2013, the Benson family of Illinois' Union County got a frightening surprise when their property was swarmed by drug agents with guns and barking dogs. After seeing strange buckets and equipment on their property, someone had called in a tip that their property might be a meth lab.

The cops probably felt a little foolish when the Bensons gave them a tour of their actual operation: a maple syrup farm. Turns out that all of those buckets and tubes were just filled with the world's greatest waffle topping.

The incredibly good-natured Bensons actually thanked their neighbors for "being so alert" and were relieved to be able to dispel any rumors that they were meth-makers. Laura Benson told local news station KFVS that "they're all welcome for pancakes if they want to come on over." The family, which has been making maple syrup for more than five years, even gave a bottle to the very rude, and perhaps a little jumpy, police squad.

At the end of the day, this was all just a big misunderstanding! But maybe police should be sure to taste-test their "drug" hauls—whether they're tofu powder or tasty maple syrup—before bragging about their busts.