EL PASO, Texas -- A 17-year-old boy tried to smuggle 30 pounds of marijuana hidden in holiday candles across the U.S.-Mexico border, customs officials said.

Customs and Border Protection officers stopped the boy at the Ysleta crossing in El Paso, Texas, late Saturday as he tried to cross into the U.S. in a taxi.

Officers searched the taxi and said they found a large cardboard box in the trunk with six holiday candles inside, and that a drug-sniffing dog alerted them to the candles.

Officers said they found marijuana inside the candles.

CBP said the teen, who is from El Paso, told the officers his grandmother had given him the candles as a gift for his mother.

"This is certainly one of the most unusual concealment methods we have seen in a while," said Polly Figueroa, CBP acting El Paso Port Director, in a press statement. "This seizure proves again that smugglers are only limited by their imagination."

The teen was taken into custody by El Paso police.

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