Guitar Center employees find stash of drugs inside an amplifier shipped to Georgia store
The average Guitar Center employee is probably not expecting to find a stash of drugs inside a guitar amplifier during their shift, but that’s exactly what happened to those working at the retailer’s Lawrenceville, Georgia store earlier this month.
On 17 July, employees opened a box shipped to the store, and discovered thousands of dollars worth of cocaine and methamphetamine stuffed inside the amp.
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Per Sgt. Collin Flynn of the Gwinnett County Police Department (the county in which Lawrenceville is located), the package had an out-of-state shipping address, but had the Guitar Center store listed as its return address, where it eventually ended up.
He says this incident is part of a greater issue surrounding the shipping of drugs via the United States Postal Service (USPS).
“They will often try and make the box appear as real as possible. They’ll attach business logos or business return addresses on the box,” he says.
In 2023, a specialist drug enforcement unit in Gwinnett County intercepted 4,500 lbs of drugs sent via USPS, totalling about $70 million, according to Flynn.
Police do not suspect any employees at the Guitar Center store of having any involvement with the shipping of the drugs, and Guitar Center says it has been cooperating with law enforcement since the drugs were discovered.
“It’s extremely rare that this happens at any business,” Flynn adds.
Musical instruments and crime don’t often go hand in hand, but they do so occasionally. Last month, thieves managed to walk out of a guitar store in Canada holding a $5,000 Gibson Les Paul in an audaciously low-effort robbery. Indeed, Les Pauls are often the target of such heists; in March, another Les Paul, this time worth $2.2k, was stolen from a store in Catonsville, Baltimore.
Browse the latest range of guitar gear over at Guitar Center.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
