Bus in deadly Ecuador crash carried 'half a ton' of marijuana

Ecuadoran authorities said that a Colombian bus that crashed near Quito, leaving 23 people dead, was carrying at least a half a ton of marijuana hidden in its floor.

Nearly 600 plastic-wrapped packages of the drug were found by a sniffer dog in the wreckage of the bus, which crashed on Tuesday, national anti-narcotics police director General Carlos Alulema said.

He told reporters that three buses from Colombia had already been stopped this year and "more than 400 kilos of cocaine and 600 of marijuana were found in similar circumstances."