Bus passenger busted with 112 pounds of marijuana

BILLINGS, Mont. – Police in Montana and Wyoming have arrested five people over the past week after finding marijuana in their luggage on Jefferson Lines buses.

A 33-year-old man was arrested at the Billings bus station Tuesday after officers found 112 pounds of marijuana in his luggage, court records said.

Duy Nguyen was charged Wednesday with criminal possession with intent to distribute, The Billings Gazette reported. He did not enter a plea in Justice Court, where his bail was set at $7,500. Prosecutors said Nguyen was also travelling under a false name with a bus ticket from Seattle to New York.

Tuesday’s bust was the third on a Jefferson Lines bus in a week.

A 19-year-old man was arrested in Billings on Sunday with 33 packages of marijuana. Kaine Hanson, who also was travelling under a false name, is charged with criminal possession with intent to distribute. He has not entered a plea.

Hanson was released without bond, but was placed on GPS monitoring and ordered not to leave the state. He had a bus ticket from Spokane, Washington, to Minneapolis, court records said. Hanson is scheduled to appear in District Court on June 15.

Justice Court officials did not have record of attorneys for Nguyen or Hanson.

Three men were arrested on May 31 after arriving in Gillette, Wyoming, by bus. Based on a tip from Montana officials, police found 93 pounds of marijuana with a street value of about $600,000 in the men’s luggage, court records said.

One of the three men, who are all in their 50s, told investigators they had flown from New Jersey to Seattle on May 28 and had dinner with a Chinese man who provided them with bus tickets back to Newark, New Jersey, and the three suitcases. They were told the contents of the luggage were a secret, one of the men said.

One suspect told officers someone was supposed to meet them in New Jersey to take the three pieces of luggage, court records said.

The men made initial court appearances on June 2 on charges of possession with intent to deliver. Bail was set at $20,000 each, the Gillette News Record reported.