A TOURIST was jailed for 82 days after carrying three bottles of honey into the US in his suitcase – which airport security said contained crystal meth.
Leon Haughton was returning to Baltimore Washington Airport after a trip to Jamaica when he was arrested.
Leon was returning from Jamaica, where he has travelled to once a year for the past decade to visit his mother, and returned with the honey which he bought there.
After arriving at the airport, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) dogs began sniffing his bag.
At first, Leon assumed it was his KFC they could smell, before police officers quickly handcuffed him and confiscated the bottles of honey.
They then told him that the honey had tested positive for drugs.
The father-of-six told ABC 7: “They said I was charged with methamphetamine. I said ‘what is methamphetamine?'”
Methamphetamine is also known as crystal meth, which is a highly additive stimulant.
Leon was then taken to Maryland jail where he was kept for over two months and told he could face up to 25 years.
It was only after a second test at a lab in Georgia, where no drugs were found in the honey, that he was allowed to walk free with all charges dropped.
However, as a green card holder – which allows a foreign national to live and work in the US on a permanent basis – he was kept in jail even longer after being told Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were involved in detaining him.
Since the incident, Leon said he has lost both of this jobs as a cleaner and a construction worker.
Leon claimed his credit score was also destroyed and his insurance is no longer valid.
He added: “They put me through hell. I want the world to know that the system is not right.”
Leon also said he is too scared to travel again.
The state’s office told ABC 7: “There was no error by any agency.”
Methamphetamine is also known as crystal meth.
The illegal drug is a stimulant which is highly addictive.
As a Class B drug, it could result in up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine for using it – while supplying it can be 14 years in prison.
The drug is most well-known following the TV series Breaking Bad, which saw a teacher and his former student produce and sell the drug.
A British woman was stopped by TSA after being caught smuggling metal knives in her knee brace.
The London-based passenger was travelling through Boston, where she laughed after they were discovered.
Sun Online Travel has contacted TSA for comment.
