SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- More than 40 kilograms of opium was intercepted this week at the Anchorage international airport in the U.S. state of Alaska, and investigations were underway to find out who was expecting the drugs, local media reported on Wednesday.

    The drugs, worth nearly 16 million U.S. dollars, were found after a routine X-ray check of a FedEx plane detected an anomaly in some packages, according to reports by the Anchorage Daily News and local television station.

    The opium, stuffed into the bases of hollowed out wooden cat statuettes, was shipped from Thailand and was bound for Wassau, a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection were quoted as saying.

    Anchorage is one of the largest hubs for air cargo in the U.S. and international flights often stop here to refuel.

    So far no arrests have been made in Anchorage, but officers said investigations were ongoing into who shipped the drugs and who planned to accept them in Wisconsin.