Drugs Valued at $1.5 Million Found on Bus in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Police acting on a tip from the public found 44 kilos of methamphetamine and heroin with a street value of more than $1.5 million hidden on a bus headed to Tijuana, a border city in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California, federal prosecutors said.

Two suspects were arrested for smuggling the drugs, which were hidden in the floorboards of the bus, the federal Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.

Criminal Investigations Agency, or AIC, agents stopped the bus on the Chihuahua City-Nuevo Casas Grandes federal highway near Los Sauces, the AG’s office said.

A drug-sniffing dog detected the drugs hidden under the floorboards, which were removed, revealing a secret compartment that contained several packages of three different illegal substances.

AIC agents discovered 56 packages of methamphetamine weighing 37.2 kilos, 4.4 kilos of white heroin in four packages and 1.4 kilos of black heroin.

The white heroin has an estimated street value in the United States of $150,000 per kilo, while the black heroin is worth $50,000 to $80,000 and the methamphetamine has a street value of about $25,000, putting the total value of the seizure at more than $1.5 million, the AG’s office said.

The suspects, the drugs and the bus were turned over to federal prosecutors, who will conduct the investigation, the AG’s office said.