Guitar Center employees find thousands of dollars in drugs stuffed inside guitar amp

Gwinnett County police are on the lookout for who is responsible for hiding thousands of dollars worth of drugs inside a guitar amplifier and shipping it to a local business.

Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson was in Lawrenceville Monday, where employees at the Guitar Center on Pleasant Hill Road discovered the drugs inside the amp on July 17. The employees were handling what appeared to be a standard box got suspicious.

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The box had an out-of-state shipping address, but was returned to the Guitar Center, listed as the return address.

Employees opened the box and found cocaine and methamphetamine stuffed inside the amplifier.

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“It’s extremely rare this happens at any business,” said Sgt. Collin Flynn of the Gwinnett County Police.

Police believe this incident is part of a larger problem involving the shipping of drugs through U.S. mail and that investigators think drug dealers have attempted this method before.

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“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,” Flynn said.

Just last year, a specialized Gwinnett police unit intercepted 4,500 pounds of drugs worth approximately $70 million that were being shipped through FedEx and UPS, thanks to the help of a K9 unit.

“In this case, we have employees that did the exact right thing,” Flynn said.

A spokesperson for Guitar Center said they are fully cooperating with law enforcement and have been since the drugs were found. Police don’t think anyone at the business was involved in shipping the drugs.