The Most Bizarre Ways Passengers Have Tried To Sneak Guns And Drugs Past TSA

Oh, humans. You can always count on them to do ridiculous things like stuff nefarious substances into crutches or weapons into peanut butter jars. And then, they try to waltz through airport security with said crutches and peanut butter while somehow believing that the TSA won't notice. But thankfully, those dutiful (if sometimes frustrating) TSA folks are on top of things. Their diligent work, plus the frankly bizarre choices of would-be smugglers, grant us absurd and amusing stories about the lengths that people go through to make sure illicit substances and firearms are never out of reach.

Lest the reader think that hidden airport drugs or firearms are rare, the TSA caught would-be flyers trying to sneak a total of 5,028 guns through airport security in the first nine months of 2024 alone — that's over 18 per day. To make matters worse, over 93% were loaded. In 2023, the TSA confiscated 6,737 guns. The TSA doesn't disclose how many drugs it seizes every year, but based on the amount of firearms they nab, it's not unreasonable to think that it's a lot.

The TSA does, however, release lists of their most bizarre annual finds, and also sometimes posts about them on Instagram. In 2024, the TSA also found all kinds of illicit items like marijuana in peanut butter (unmixed) and gun parts mixed with LEGOs or wrapped in foil (and stuffed in a teapot). Incidentally, foil may be a common kitchen staple, but it's also a TSA red flag. And just because we have to mention it, they also found live snakes in some dude's pants. And that's just the beginning.

Here's a pro-tip to the TSA: If you ever spot a guy with a pained expression hopping through airport security on crutches, and then the person pauses to takes a perfectly normal step to grab something out a bag, then those crutches might not be medically necessary (and therefore suspicious). The TSA know this because they found drugs in crutches in 2024 in Portsmouth International Airport (PSM) in New Hampshire. The TSA keep a good sense of humor about such things, though. They posted a meme-worthy gag about the incident on the TSA Instagram, writing, "There's no-doze for the weary."

As the story goes, picture and all, TSA officials at PSM spotted something conspicuous in someone's crutch while the crutch was passing through X-ray screening. They did another check of the crutch and found a "baggie of unknown substance ... artfully concealed," inside it (per the TSA on Instagram). The baggie was somehow packed in a cluster of wrenches, of all things, and then wrapped in electrical tape. And in case anyone is wondering what the baggie was for, it was a "packer," meaning that it was meant for ingestion and/or insertion for the purpose of smuggling. As the TSA wrote on Instagram, they don't set out to find such things. But if found, they do report them to law enforcement. There's currently no word on the fate of the smuggler in question but we're guessing there were some serious consequences.

"The peanut butter was smooth. The smuggling attempt wasn't." That's how we could summarize the next TSA-thwarted attempt at smuggling drugs or guns onto planes. This time, it wasn't meth in crunches, but a .22-caliber firearm in peanut butter. The TSA discovered seperate, disassembled gun parts spread out between two separate jars of Jif peanut butter. 

As the TSA originally wrote on the agency's website on December 23, 2022, officials at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) found the pieces of the semiautomatic weapon in a carry-on bag passing through X-ray screening. Once again employing their favorite description, the agency wrote that the pieces were "artfully concealed" and included a fully-loaded clip. Port Authority Police promptly tromped onto the scene and apprehended the person responsible for the attempt. Note that this happened two days before Christmas during an especially busy time, which might explain why the perpetrator thought that TSA wouldn't catch him. This is probably why it's not a good idea to ban the TSA, as they're needed for security no matter how what.

As it turns out, guns in and of themselves aren't banned from flights provided that they're placed in a hard, locked case packed in a checked bag. The gun must also be unloaded. At the time of the peanut butter gun incident the TSA had been dealing with an increase in attempts to smuggle guns, skyrocketing from 1,123 attempts in 2010 to 6,301 in 2022. Every year except for 2020 saw an increase in such attempts. 

Traveling with babies isn't easy, especially on long flights. It's also not easy to deal with strollers in airports, as they can cause extra confusion or hassle when passing through security. It's especially tough to get a stroller through security when it's strapped with a weapon. Let's just be glad that the perpetrator kept the gun out of reach of any baby or toddler nearby. Let's also be glad that the perpetrator not-very-slickly tucked the gun right in the back of the stroller in plain sight sticking out of an unzipped pocket. This time, the gun didn't even have to pass through X-ray screening for TSA officials (or anyone, really) to spot it.

Dating to November 14, 2024, the TSA once again wielded glorious wordplay on Instagram to write that this particular contraband find wasn't "stock" but was, "absolutely the type of find that makes us recoil." The TSA doesn't provide too many details about the case, but we know that it happened at Houston's William P. Hobby Airport (HOU). Like the peanut butter gun, the stroller gun's clip was loaded. And like before, Port Authority Police took the would-be smuggler into custody.  

And just to slip an honorable mention here into our list: This wasn't the first time that someone tried to use a baby stroller to sneak a gun on a plane. The same thing happened in 2021 at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE) in Pennsylvania (per the TSA website). TSA officials spotted the gun in the stroller pocket and that was that. Once again, the gun was loaded. 

Yet again, smugglers seem to favor peanut butter to get their contraband past the screeners. On March 2, 2024 at Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) in North Carolina, the TSA on Instagram reported one big violation that preceded the marijuana find. Namely, the criminal failed to remember the most basic of post-9/11 flight rules: Liquids — or malleable substances, generally — must be in containers of 100ml or less. Not that the TSA wouldn't have found a tiny pot bag in a tiny peanut butter bottle, but still, the jar wouldn't have made it past security even if it wasn't stuffed with an illicit substance. And, if the passenger in question passed a TSA K-9 checkpoint, the dog would've definitely sniffed it out.

The TSA doesn't go into detail about this drug bust, but we could assume that the person put their pot-stuffed peanut butter jar into a carry-on bag, slid the bag into the X-ray machine, and the jig was up. Judging by pictures on the TSA's Instagram, the criminal didn't do a fantastic job of concealing the drugs. The clear plastic peanut butter jar is largely empty and the plastic bag filled with weed is clearly visible inside. Interestingly and relatedly, drug paraphernalia is actually okay to bring on board a flight. This includes pipes and other accessories as long as they're free of residue. 

While we could mention quite a few remaining busts that the TSA have made, one more gun-related incident makes the list because of the ridiculousness of the failed concealment method. For this we go to Newark International Airport (EWR), the airport where people complain twice as much about the TSA as anywhere else. But in this case, passengers ought to be glad that the TSA was there to do their job. Otherwise, the perpetrator would have smuggled a gun on board. In a combat boot. With some Marvel-branded LEGOs. 

As the TSA rightfully wrote on Instagram on October 18, 2024, "It's Loki outrageous and often leaves us Wanda-ing ...why?" Why do so many people insist on trying to bring guns on planes? The gun-concealing passenger didn't lazily stuff a gun into a stroller or split a gun's components between multiple peanut butter jars. The person took a gun, disassembled it, slipped its pieces into a combat boot, and then stuck that boot into a LEGO box from a Marvel LEGO play set. Let that sink in. At no point do any of those decisions make sense, especially the inclusion of the combat boot that would not, in any way, impede X-ray vision. At most, we could speculate that the criminal thought that TSA employees are really, really dumb and would mistake the gun components for LEGOs. While the TSA don't mention it outright, we could assume that Port Authority Police sighed in exhaustion on their way to hauling off the gun-and-LEGO fan.