Stereophonics' Bus Chased By Canadian Cops

Welsh rockers Stereophonics had a 1997 U.K. hit with "Traffic," but they don't do as well when it comes to driving in Canada.

The band's tour bus was apparently parked illegally near the Canada-U.S. border around 4 a.m. Sunday after a show in Vancouver, and was followed by police after the unknowing driver pulled away. After a three-kilometre chase, the cops pulled the bus over and ordered everyone out as they searched it and a trailer, which had to be unloaded, for drugs.

"It was aggressive border control," singer Kelly Jones told British tabloid The Sun. "One of the guards started talking about a guy who used to smuggle drugs through bands' equipment.

"I said: 'Are you talking about Howard Marks? He's my friend.' You can imagine the rest."

Marks spent seven years in a U.S. prison for drug-smuggling, and now the 63-year-old Welshman makes his living by writing and speaking about his experiences and promoting the legalization of cannabis. During the mid-'80s, Marks had 43 aliases, 89 phone lines and 25 companies trading throughout the world. At the height of his career, he was smuggling shipments of up to 30 tons of drugs from Pakistan and Thailand to the U.S. and Canada.

Jones' remark about the notorious ex-con didn't go down well with the Canadian authorities, as the band were detained for three hours. They were eventually sent on their way when nothing illegal was found and are now back in the U.K.