U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Sector busted smugglers bringing in a ton and a half of marijuana from Mexico. The seizures came in three separate incidents on Thursday.
In the first incident, agents working near the Texas border town of Garceno witnessed suspicious bundles being loaded into a vehicle. Agents moved in on the vehicle and the driver attempted to flee, according to information provided to Breitbart Texas by Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Marlene Castro in a written statement.
Initially, the driver drove north after he spotted the Border Patrol agents. He eventually turned back south and crashed through a fence into a brushy area. The driver caused damage to two fences and a gate when he crashed into the area. He and 10 other passengers in the vehicle managed to escape into the brush before agents could catch up with him. All eleven people fled back to Mexico.
A search of the vehicle revealed bundles containing 787 pounds of marijuana. Agents seized the truck and the drug load.
Later on Thursday, agents working near another border community, La Casita, observed a suspicious vehicle driving north from the Rio Grande River area. Again, the driver began to flee from the agents, driving northward. Eventually, he turned back south and headed back towards the Rio Grande River border with Mexico, Castro stated. Smugglers will frequently use a “splash down” technique where they will crash their vehicle into the river in hopes that cartel members on the Mexican side of the river can retrieve the load before Border Patrol boats arrive.
Unable to make it into the river, the driver abandoned the vehicle and fled into the brush. Agents searched the vehicle and found 109 bundles of marijuana loaded into the bed of the pickup truck. The bundles of marijuana weighed 1,275.36 pounds, officials stated. Again, agents confiscated the pickup truck and the load of marijuana.
In the third incident, agents working near the border town of Rio Grande City spotted another vehicle. The driver of this vehicle managed to successfully “splashdown” into the Rio Grande River and swim back to Mexico. Agents moved in quickly and removed 75 bundles of marijuana weighing 912.7 pounds. The drugs and vehicle were seized by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Agents were not able to successfully apprehend any suspects but prevented the smuggling of nearly 3,000 pounds of marijuana and ten illegal immigrants into the U.S.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
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