Sink & Swim
Suspected drug smuggler drives truck into Rio Grande

Zack Quaintance
December 21, 2007 - 6:10PM

MISSION — U.S. Border Patrol agents seized more than 1,300 pounds of marijuana Friday in Anzalduas Park after a drug smuggler drove a truck into the Rio Grande and escaped in a raft, an agency official said.

About 7:30 a.m., agents on patrol near the small river town of Granjeno were dispatched to check on a pair of suspicious vehicles at the park on the far south side of Mission, said Oscar Saldaña, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector.

Once agents arrived, they spotted a GMC Envoy SUV and Ford F-250 truck leaving and tried to pull the vehicles over. The Envoy stopped, but the F-250 did not, instead continuing into the river.

Agents arrested one man — the driver and sole occupant of the Envoy — and seized 769 pounds marijuana found inside the vehicle. Saldaña would not release any information about the driver.

Agents also spotted men on a raft paddling from Mexican bank of the river toward the truck after it plunged into the water. The men in the raft pulled on board the driver of the F-250 and four bundles of what is believed to be marijuana before the group fled into Mexico, Saldaña said. He did not know how many men were on the raft.

The Mission Fire Department assisted agents in searching the submerged F-250, which was found to be carrying 544 pounds of marijuana.

Investigators believe the men on the raft, as well as the two drivers, conspired to smuggle drugs into the United States from Mexico.

Mission Police Department officials say human and drug trafficking is a regular occurrence in Anzalduas Park and other areas on the city’s south side. Next year, police plan to use a federal grant-funded surveillance system to monitor the area more closely and quash those crimes, said Lt. Martin Garza, a spokesman for the department.
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Zack Quaintance covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4447.

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