Some people will try anything to smuggle illicit goods across country borders.

The black market allows for the stealthy manufacturing and distribution of most illegal products under the sun. And Drug mules - those in charge of transporting these goods - have tried everything from stuffing breast implants with cocaine to loading meth inside jalapeños or cucumbers.

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Now - if you've thought of it (or even if you haven't) - someone has tried it.

Though the best smugglers can be inconspicuous, some have their giveaways or tells. Per The Standard, one man unsuccessfully attempted to transfer half a kilogram of cocaine underneath his wig, after authorities caught onto his behaviour, and his obviously irregular hairline.

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After a flight from Bogota, Colombia to Barcelona, Spain, police stopped a man walking through the Josep Tarradellas Airport. While he looked nervous, his main giveaway was his oversized hairpiece. The man had attempted to smuggle the drugs by taping them to his head, before covering them with a large toupee and hat.

Spanish authorities report that the man was trying to conceal more than $33,000 (£27,000) of cocaine across country lines. A police statement read: "There is no limit to the inventiveness of drug traffickers trying to mock controls.”

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Though police shared a photo of the man wearing the drugs as a hat - both with and without his oversized toupee covering them - they shaded his eyes as to not reveal his identity.

Illegal drug trading is incredibly difficult to regulate. In 2018, Spanish police seized more than 100 kilograms of cocaine at the Barcelona-El Prat airport, which is about the weight of a full-grown donkey. That's a whole lot of powder.

The debate over border control between the United States and Mexico has been running hot for years, but the concept of building a wall between the two countries has definitely come more to the forefront since Donald Trump began his campaign for the 2016 presidential election.

The ongoing conflict between Trump and Democrats over this issue has continued to this day. Recently, a dispute over his demand of $5.7 billion for 230 miles of wall to be added to the border this year led to a 35-day government shutdown.

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Amidst the ongoing debate on whether a wall between the two countries would be an effective use of resources, surveillance footage showing dozens of migrants scaling one portion of the border fence has emerged. The US Customs and Border Protection agency released the video, showing people climbing over a section of the fence in Arizona on Monday, using a ladder provided by a smuggler.

The video shows them travelling over one-by-one, before scaling down the 18 feet drop using what appears to be a rope. At the end of the video, the camera zooms in to show what is presumably the smuggler, carrying the ladder back south of the border across their back.

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The group, which supposedly amounted to 110 people, were later apprehended by Border Patrol agents. Jose Garibay, a Border Patrol spokesman, told the Arizona Republic that the video shows how "brazen" smugglers have become:

"They know that we're not gonna go into Mexico to apprehend them. So once he puts up that ladder, gets his commodity - in which he looks at these humans - in the United States, then he takes down his ladder, and as you saw in the video, just walks back to wherever he hid the ladder and continues on with his day."

This follows news from earlier this week in which 376 migrants were found walking along the border after using tunnels to bypass the fence. Many critics of the plans for the wall have pointed to these evasions of the fence as evidence that physical barriers do little to stop those who migrate illegally.

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As one reporter pointed out, instances of those jumping the fence to make it to the US have dropped significantly over the years, with a 90% decrease in arrests since 2000. Many attribute this to the work of border patrol agents, with any physical barrier only giving them slightly more time to respond.

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Other critics have suggested that the border wall would need to be monitored in real time by sensors, cameras, and patrols along every section of the 1954-mile stretch, otherwise blind spots could still be found and exploited.

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On Friday afternoon, it was announced that a deal had been struck to re-open the government without any funding for the wall. While Trump failed to get funding for his proposed 230 additional miles of wall for 2019, the conversation is far from over yet.

The Senate is expected to come together and vote on the proposed measure on Friday.

Although with every passing second I get a little bit older, I can't imagine what it's like to be known as a senior citizen. In life, we're so focused on moving forward and looking to the future, so how do you cope when the future more likely than not won't involve you in any shape or form? Whatever the answer is to that question, it looks as if the elderly population on the whole aren't too fussed. When I picture a typical old person, I picture someone who might be struggling with a world that has somewhat passed them by, but someone with an otherworldly knowledge who sometimes performs Breaking Bad-levels of drug smuggling. Wait, what? Yes, you read that right. This drug dealing couple could probably give Walter White and Nancy Botwin a run for their money, if they hadn't been arrested for carrying more than 60 pounds of weed in their car while driving from California to New England earlier this week. So how exactly did 80-year-old Patrick Jiron, and his wife Barbara, 70, get into this decidedly strange situation? It all started with what the York County Sheriff’s Department in South Carolina thought would be a routine traffic stop. Noticing their pickup truck drive over the central lane without signalling, they decided to pull the truck over, and according to Paul Vrbka with the Sheriff's Department, that's when the strong smell of raw marijuana started to waft through the airwaves. As you might do as a law enforcement official in that situation, an immediate probable cause search was initiated, and canines were brought on just to make sure the Sheriff's Department weren't barking up the wrong tree. Sure enough, underneath the pickup's topper was the offending green, in bags upon bags upon bags, with an estimated street value of over $330,000. the Jirons were immediately brought in. "They said the marijuana was for Christmas presents," Vrbka said. Patrick Jiron was jailed on charges of possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver without a drug tax stamp (in the state of Nebraska, marijuana dealers are required to purchase a stamp from its Department of Revenue, in order to prove that the state’s drug tax has been paid). [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/yorknewstimes/status/943526249032568833]] His wife Barbara remained out of jail "due to some medical issues", Vrbka says, and after posting 10 percent of a $100,000 bail bond, Patrick was released as well. At this moment in time, it's not clear whether this was an epic drug scheme nipped in the bud or simply an elderly couple who wanted to spread some Christmas cheer in an extremely unique way, but I've got to be honest, I don't know how you'd be able to procure that much weed without shaving your head, adopting a fake name and declaring to whoever will listen that you are the "one who knocks". Either way, you kind of have to admire the sheer audacity shown here by Patrick and Barbara Jiron, who drove across the country with the kind of blithe indifferent you'd expect from an elderly couple who just want to blaze.

A second-grade student at an Arizona elementary school was allegedly discovered with two guns and ammunition in his backpack.

The incident happened on August 29 when Cochise County Sheriff’s officials said they were called to Cochise Elementary School on reports that a seven-year-old student had a weapon.

After arriving at the school, authorities met with officials and the student and found that a handgun and ammunition were in his backpack, along with a second gun.

Deputies then contacted the student’s parents and gave the unidentified boy a juvenile referral for charges of misconduct with a weapon and a minor in possession of a firearm.

Check out the police statement below:

“It was discovered that a gun and ammunition was located inside of his backpack, and ultimately a second handgun was discovered as well,” the sheriff's office said.

Karl Uterhardt, the school’s superintendent and principal, told KGUN 9 that he searched the boy's backpack after another student reported seeing a firearm.

"I’ve searched backpacks and stuff and I’ve never found anything ever," Uterhardt told the outlet, adding that he ended up finding two loaded guns in the student's backpack.

The school official said they immediately called the Cochise County Sheriff's Office and the student's parents after assessing the incident.

"The sheriffs came in and they did their interview. Mom was there. We made sure we called the parents to make sure that they knew this was happening," said Uterhardt. "You hear about it in the news, you hear about things you never think it’s going to happen to you."

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The principal said the school staff will have a meeting this week to discuss safety protocols and examine different ways to move forward.

"I'm thanking god that it turned out the way that it did. You couldn't hope for a better result. I'm very happy with the kids that spoke up," Uterhardt said. "And as an administrator, you got to listen to the kids even if you think it's 'ehh'...you got to treat it seriously."

Carol Capas, the sheriff's spokeswoman, told Arizona Daily Independent that there were no reported threats involving the gun and praised the school staff for "controlling" the situation.

"We appreciate the school staff who assisted in controlling this situation immediately and taking the necessary steps to keep others safe," Capas added.

The spokeswoman also revealed that it is unlikely that the student's parents will face charges for the incident - which remains under investigation.

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It may have seemed outlandish to some that in Breaking Bad, Gus Fring operated a drug empire from behind the doors of a family-friendly fast food restaurant - but this fiction wasn't too far from the truth.

Earlier this month, authorities in Arizona discovered $1 million in various drugs during a traffic stop, but their findings didn't end there. Soon enough, they were led to a 600-foot tunnel running all the way to a private home in Mexico - starting in a former KFC.

On August 13, police in San Luis, Arizona, saw the owner of a now-abandoned business, bringing several plastic containers outside and loading them onto a trailer. Court documents obtained by KGUN describe that they pulled him over for an unspecified equipment violation, but during the traffic stop a narcotics dog alerted them to the presence of drugs.

Inside were 239 packages of various drug substances, including over 261 pounds of methamphetamine, 14 pounds of cocaine, 30 pounds of white heroin, 13.7 pounds of brown heroin and 6.8 pounds of fentanyl. According to Homeland Security Special Agent Scott Brown, who spoke to KYMA on Wednesday about the bust, the fentanyl alone "translates to over 3 million dosage units". The total value of the drugs seized was over $1 million.

The suspect, later identified as Jesus Ivan Lopez Garcia, is currently facing federal charges including conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute. It has been reported that Garcia bought the property, which used to be a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, in April for $390,000. Apparently, however, "the structure was vacant in recent years and was not used for business," according to the court documents.

Two days after the initial arrest, a full search of the vacant fast food restaurant was conducted, and the entrance to the tunnel was found inside. Homeland Secruity Investigations officials confirmed to KYMA that the tunnel was 22 feet deep and travelled nearly 590 feet underground, before reaching a private home across the border. The tunnel ends in a trap door underneath a bed in the home, located in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico.

Court documents described the construction of the drug tunnel:

"This tunnel was very well constructed and would have taken this Drug Trafficking Organization a long time to dig and would have been very expensive.

"This tunnel necessarily required a combination of several individuals on both sides of the border, engaged in an intricate, risky transnational conspiracy to construct such a secretive structure."

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that a drug trafficking tunnel has been constructed into the United States. In 2016, a tunnel nearly half a mile long was found running from San Diego to Tijuana. And in 2012, police discovered a "sophisticated drug smuggling tunnel" running from the same locations as the 2018 find.

Almost 200 cross border tunnels have been discovered since 1990, the Independent reported, although these have been of various sizes and success rates. Homeland Security even has its own tunnel task force to deal with these sorts of crimes.