Another controversial drug ring case has hit the internet by storm as two Mexican bus drivers were arrested when authorities found massive amounts of illegal weed stored in a tour vehicle.
The Mexican-United States border has always been a spot where hotly debated issues take place.
Undocumented immigrants continue to cross the border despite the stringent actions taken by the local authorities.
At the same time, smuggling marijuana through the borders is suspected to be taking place through the most unexpected routes.
Based on the inside information that authorities received, border personnel conducted a very strict search on all the vehicles that passed through.
While most private vehicles managed to pass the safety test, it was evident right from the start that to transport such large quantities of illegal weed, a bigger vehicle had to be mandatory.
Further delving into this suspicion, the authorities stopped a tour bus at the checkpoint on Highway 80.
The checkpoint has been specially erected to check people and goods that are transported from the U.S. to Mexico.
Being an immigration checkpoint, it took a couple of hours into the night for the patrol team to thoroughly investigate the tour bus.
After the search, they managed to find that a massive quantity of about 320 pounds of marijuana was hidden inside the bus.
The news comes from an authentic source, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The government division released an official press release stating that the patrol personnel managed to find the drugs because of a timely discovery made by their canine.
The trained dog locked onto a strong odor that came from the rear side of the bus, supposedly the toilet area of the vehicle.
Such large quantities of marijuana were stored near the toilet to evade the scent trail but the authorities suspected there was something more to this placement.
They thoroughly searched the truck only to find that 320 pounds of marijuana were tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and stored inside a hidden compartment. The weed trove had been bundled and tightly wrapped into bricks.
In the press release, the patrol guards confirmed that they found 264 bricks of marijuana.
Once the evidence had been collected, the two individuals who drove the tour bus were arrested-and thus initiated the media frenzy around the drug smuggling case.
As the truck was part of the evidence, the authorities seized the entire batch of weed they had found along with the entire tour bus altogether.
The total worth of the content seized by the border patrol agents, including the bus, is valued at $159,000.
The CBP department apologized to the passengers on the bus for the long wait and later transported them to a business area nearby. An alternative transportation option was arranged for them while the suspects were taken into custody.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection department didn't share any specifications with regard to the marijuana they had seized, as they opine it might alert others who are illegally transporting such goods across the border.
The two drivers who were under arrest are aged 26 and 32, but their names or photographs were not revealed in the press release due to security reasons.
As the Mexican tour bus was driven by the two people, they were the only ones who were arrested; whereas every other passenger who was traveling on board didn't have any legal issues at all.
The border patrol conducted a routine checkup on travelers' bags and asked them some general questions, none of which were linked to the drug smuggling case.
It was treated as a standalone issue because of the location of the drugs in the bus that eventually led to the drivers' arrest.
Further investigation has been initiated in the area so as to find if there is any such illegal drug smuggling taking place at the border that's similar to this case.
The immigration checkpoints have been alerted after the discovery, and all large vehicles with extra space to store such large quantities of marijuana are being checked before they'recleared to cross the border.
Security has been tightened in the zone.
Such revelations continue to force authorities to increase surveillance in the region, making it tough for those who travel through the border regularly.
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