It wasn’t a sting operation, but federal agents did encounter a large number of bees when making a drug bust in Sinaloa on Monday.

After receiving an anonymous tip-off, federal ministerial police traveled to the El Pisal toll plaza on the Culiacán-Los Mochis highway and subsequently stopped a vehicle transporting “wooden boxes with bee panels” (honeycomb panels), according to a statement from the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

The boxes and panels — on which presumably innocent bees appeared to be minding their own business — were taken to FGR offices “due to the risk” of the situation, the statement said.

At the offices, “personnel specialized in the management of bees” found a large quantity of illicit narcotics inside some of the boxes,” the FGR said.

All told, more than 1.2 million fentanyl pills, four kilograms of fentanyl powder, 70 kilos of methamphetamine and five kilos of cocaine were found.

The driver of the vehicle — who was possibly making a beeline for the northern border — was detained and placed in the custody of federal authorities. It appeared to be the first time that bees had unwittingly colluded in a drug trafficking operation in Mexico.

In similarly curious cases, authorities at the Mexico-U.S. border have previously found fentanyl pills hidden inside tamales and meth concealed by Brussels sprouts.

Mexico News Daily