This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Police in northern Mexico say two people have died in the crash of a car whose air bag had been replaced with bricks of cocaine.

The passenger-side air bag compartment was apparently being used to smuggle 55lb (25 kilos) of cocaine. The driver’s air bag apparently did deploy.

Federal police said they recovered 23 packages of the drug from the car after it crashed in the town of San Fernando in the northern border state of Tamaulipas.

Emergency personnel took the two occupants of the car to a hospital, where they died of their injuries.