United States Drug Enforcement Administration

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Compton, California, man was indicted by a federal grand jury today after law enforcement officers found more than 18 kilograms of methamphetamine in a suitcase he was smuggling through Kansas City, Mo., aboard a bus bound for Atlanta, Georgia.

Diego Ruiz-Bibian, 19, was charged with possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Today’s indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against Ruiz-Bibian on Feb. 14, 2023.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, detectives with the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department contacted Ruiz-Bibian at a local bus station on Feb. 13, 2023, when he arrived in Kansas City traveling aboard a bus from Denver, Colorado, on his way to Atlanta. Although one of the detectives had seen Ruiz-Bibian pick up a hard-sided suitcase from the luggage area of the bus, the affidavit says, he told the detectives it did not belong to him.

A detective searched the suitcase and found eight bundles in heat-sealed “Food Saver” style bags, which contained a total of 18.33 kilograms of methamphetamine.

The charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Missouri Western Interdiction Narcotics (MoWIN) Task Force.