Alleged Meth Smuggler Chooses Wrong Parking Lot

You just had one job, suspected drug smuggler: to get across the US-Mexico border with 27 pounds of meth. And technically, Sylvia Mashiah allegedly did that—until she screwed it all up, according to Customs and Border Protection agents. The 33-year-old California woman allegedly drove up to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry from the Mexico side to enter San Diego on Monday evening and cleared the first "primary" inspection checkpoint, the Smoking Gun reports. Mashiah would have been free and clear to make her way to her final destination, except she made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a second parking lot where cars are sent to be examined by federal agents if they're suspicious at the first checkpoint.

This second lot involves a thorough investigation of the car, with closer questioning of the driver and passengers, a physical search, and drug-sniffing dogs. When agents ripped through Mashiah's 2006 Ford Focus, they say they found the 17 packages of methamphetamine hidden in the rear quarter panels. She was arrested on felony drug importation charges, which could earn her five years in the slammer. (In September, an anti-drug mascot was found stuffed with ... drugs.)