Mexico Customs Found My Weed - Here's What Happened

DISCLAIMER: This story is told in the first person, but in no way is there an identity attached to it, as the source will be kept anonymous. There is verifiable proof of the occurrence.

Anytime the subject of traveling across boarders with cannabis comes up in online forums, oftentimes the top answer is "just don't do it". This is the smartest decision possible, but there's a reason all those forums exist. Cannabis-using travelers often get attached to the idea of consuming while exploring new areas, or not having their true medical needs disrupted. In this case, we were traveling for a destination wedding that happened to be on 420 weekend.

We've flown into Cancun airport two other times relatively recently (post decriminalization laws in Mexico), both times having successfully carried cannabis products. Previously, products included cartridges, edibles and flower (joints only), and this time was no different. As we landed in the airport, we went straight through to the customs area, as we had no checked baggage.

Essentially, the customs area in Cancun consists of multiple people who stand between the baggage claim area and the passage to multiple exits. One person in this position selected myself and my travel companion for a random search - first time that's happened to either of us. I knew my companion didn't have to worry, but me on the other hand...was about to be tested.

Traveler at customs search table in Cancun.

As we approached the random search area, we saw 8 customs agents all assigned to their own tables in which they use to go through passenger luggage. We targeted one younger agent specifically because we witnessed him rush through 2 quick, half-ass searches in a row, barely searching the bags he chose to open. As we approached his table, two other people beat us to the punch, so I quickly looked around for another solid option. I saw an older man laughing with a woman he just searched, so we went to his table to try and soak up the positive vibes. That turned out to be a mistake.

We walk up to the customs agent and he asks us to place our bags on the table. We both only had backpacks, and he decides to search my travel partner first. As expected, that search yielded no issues, but it did give me pause, because he searched an area that was vulnerable in my backpack. Finally, the search on my bag begins.

My heart is racing, but I'm maintaining a poker face as the customs agent begins to dissect my belongings. First thing he grabs is the pack of gummy worms I kept in my smallest pocket. They were Trolli gummy worms intermixed with five 50mg candy rosin edibles. The gentlemen begins to carefully look at the package, seemingly suspecting something was amiss, evening going as far to read the ingredients of the package. Ultimately he puts them back. I'm 1 for 1 so far.

Next scare happens when he opens my entire toiletries pocket. I had a 500mg rosin cartridge sitting at the bottom of my contact lens box. The agent picks up the box itself, then sets it back into the pocket he found it. Now I'm 2 for 2 so far.

At this point, the agent has searched all of the small pockets on the backpack, and just completed the search of the first large section of the backpack. They completely passed over my luxury headphones case which contained some joints, and the battery pack to use the rosin carts. Now I'm 3 for 3 and feeling pretty solid.

The middle-aged customs agent proceeds to open the last section of my backpack. This section contains most of my clothes. I've stuffed it to capacity, and my clothes are even folded military style, making it more tedious to pull everything out and apart. He starts aggressively foraging his hand through my clothes after he can't easily take everything out, seeming like he wanted to run his hand between every fold of clothing. I'm getting increasingly nervous, as this part of the search starts to feel excessively long. In the midst of his aggressive search, he pulls out a pair of socks, and my heart drops. This pair of socks contained my last placement of cannabis products.

He peels apart the socks, and finds a miniature nylon earbuds case, similar to the one pictured below:

Small earbuds case similar to one described

He opens the case to find 5 joints and a cartridge. He asks me if it's cannabis. I don't say a word. Instead, I just look at him and the joints like I'm clueless. He then tells me "you know you can't have cannabis in Mexico", and I retort by saying "I thought it was decriminalized, didn't think it was an issue." Next, he tells us to gather our belongings, and follow him to the office.

We step into a small office inundated with legal posters and international fine information mostly in Spanish. We had to wait behind one other person in a line en route to what appeared to be a payment kiosk with plexiglass protection. Once we get to the front of the line, we're greeted by the customs agent who first randomly selected us to be searched.

He tells us we have two options:

1. We pay a fine, and go about our day.

2. We refuse to pay, then they call the police to handle the issue.

Without hesitation, I agree to pay the fine. The agents hand me a sheet mostly written in Spanish indicating the details of the fine. The first number I see is 10,588 for a "tax". I was ready to pay about any amount to avoid legal issues, but that number hurt my eyes and soul...until I found out it was shown in pesos. The dollar amount I needed to pay was about $630. Still not great, but a huge relief in comparison.

The customs agent explains to me that he's filing the issue as a "tobacco tax", because they can't officially put cannabis on the record. He also let us keep the joints and cartridge. At this point, I knew I had just gotten extorted, and may not have been dealing with 100 percent legit people, but I was extremely happy with the outcome, all things considered. I was making it to my good friend's wedding with no incarceration, and making it to 420 with all of my smoking accessories.

Let this be a lesson to future travelers though. I don't advise anyone to attempt to do this, and my situation was nothing short of a best case fairytale. I will say, edibles seem to be relatively safe if you absolutely feel the need to travel with cannabis for real medicinal purposes. Otherwise, leave the weed behind, and appreciate the hell out of it once you return home.