Fake band tries to smuggle $2.7M in cocaine hidden in bus over Texas border, CBP says
_fitted.png "Customs and Border Protection officers stopped a bus carrying accused drug smugglers pretending to be musicians, who were sneaking 208 pounds of cocaine into the U.S. from Mexico, officials say.")
A bus full of men posing as musicians on the way to a gig in Texas was stopped at the southern border, and a search revealed a $2.7 million drug smuggling attempt, officials say.
A Volvo passenger bus tried to cross into the U.S. through the McAllen Port of Entry, in Hidalgo, on Monday, Feb. 24, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Southern Texas.
There were seven people on board, including the driver, who told border agents he was driving the men to Houston to perform and record music, records show.
McClatchy News on Feb. 27 reached out for comment from attorneys listed for the men, but didn’t immediately hear back.
Whether agents bought the story is unclear, but the bus was “flagged for secondary inspection,” documents read.
A “CBP officer selected the vehicle for inspection which included utilizing nonintrusive inspection equipment and screening by a canine team,” a Feb. 26 CBP news release said.
However, an X-ray showed “an anomaly in the gas tank area,” court documents read. It was 208 pounds of cocaine, packed into 80 bundles hidden in the tank.
The total value of the cocaine was $2.7 million, CBP officials said in the news release.
Agents interviewed the driver and several passengers, all of whom stuck to their story at first.
But the driver’s statements weren’t matching up, and when pressed he told agents that the band wasn’t real, but a front for an ongoing drug smuggling scheme, according to documents. His passengers were “posing” as musicians.
He had been driving the bus for several months, he said, adding that he would park it at a hotel after arriving in Houston, leave, then wait for a call when it was time to give his passengers a ride back to Mexico, officials said.
Investigators learned the bus had been crossing the border “every week to two weeks” since October, and “a review of X-ray photos from the previous trips though the Hidalgo, TX Port of Entry, shows that on each of the trips the same anomaly existed within the gas tank of the vehicle.”
The driver and passengers were arrested by Homeland Security Investigations, according to CBP.
This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 1:21 PM with the headline "Fake band tries to smuggle $2.7M in cocaine hidden in bus over Texas border, CBP says."