Karaoke machine hid 16 pounds of cocaine worth $750,000, Texas cops say

Two drug smugglers picked a unique way to hide cocaine Wednesday, but they were no match for a drug-sniffing K-9, according to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.

Sgt. Randy Thurmann stopped a Chevrolet Avalanche on Interstate 10 Wednesday morning, and after meeting with the driver and passenger, he had a “strong suspicion that the vehicle was being used to transport illegal narcotics,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.

The stop was made near Flatonia, which is in between Houston and San Antonio.

The driver, 34-year-old Sandra Degarza Mendiola, allowed the sergeant to search the vehicle, prompting a K-9 named Kolt to be brought in, according to the sheriff. Kolt alerted handlers to the smell of narcotics at the passenger window, where Thurmann found “several bundles concealed inside a large speaker box on the backseat,” the sheriff’s office said.

The drugs were suspended in inside a karaoke machine using spray foam, KXAN-TV reported. Thurmann field tested the narcotics and determined that it was cocaine, according to the sheriff.

The sheriff’s sergeant found six bundles of the drug, which weighed more than 16 pounds, the sheriff’s office said. The cocaine has an estimated street value of $750,000, KWHI-TV reported.

Mendiola and the passenger, 37-year-old Alifonso Garza Jr., both of Laredo, were jailed on possession of a controlled substance charges, the sheriff’s office said. Thurmann suspected they were transporting the cocaine from Laredo to Houston, which are more than 300 miles away from one another, according to the sheriff.