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A vehicle with 665 Pounds of Marijuana Ferried Across the Rio Grande

US Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Border Patrol agents interdict three smuggling attempts resulting in the seizure of more than $1.2M worth of narcotics.

Last Tuesday morning, Brownsville Border Patrol Station (BRP) agents working in Brownsville, Texas, near the Rio Grande, discovered footprints leading away from the river and towards the River Bend Golf Resort. Agents followed the footprints to an area west of the Sunset Lake Subdivision where they discovered six bundles of marijuana. Agents searched the nearby area but no subjects were discovered. The abandoned bundles of marijuana weighed over 124 pounds with an estimated street value of over $99K.

BRP agents working in Brownsville, Texas, encountered a white Ford Explorer suspected of being used in narcotics smuggling. Agents followed behind the vehicle and attempted to stop it when it failed to yield. The driver changed direction and began to travel towards the Rio Grande. The vehicle splashed down into the river and two subjects quickly exited the vehicle carrying two bundles of suspected marijuana and retreated to Mexico. At the river, agents discovered a trailer retrofitted with barrels around the frame making the trailer buoyant. Agents suspect the Ford Explorer was rafted across the river into the United States using the trailer. Agents advised Mexican authorities, who responded to the area and seized two vehicles and two bundles of marijuana near the Mexican riverbank. Agents extracted 29 bundles of marijuana from the Ford Explorer. The marijuana weighed over 665 pounds with an estimated street value of over $530K.

Additionally, over 12 pounds of methamphetamine and nearly 8 pounds of heroin were seized at the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint.