Mexican National Sentenced for Assaulting Border Patrol Officer

Last Update: 3:41 pm

MCALLEN - A judge sentenced a Mexican national to five years in prison for assaulting a Border Patrol officer and possessing marijuana.

Investigators say Josue Leonel Torres-Benavides drove a van into a Border Patrol unit. It happened April 7, 2010. Agents noticed people crossing the Rio Grande River near McAllen. The group was carrying bundles. A van was then spotted heading north, away from the river.

Agents tried stopping the van by positioning their vehicle on the levee. That’s when the van hit the Border Patrol unit and an unoccupied water district truck.

The van’s driver, identified as Torres-Benavides, ran. Investigators say he had a handgun. Agents later caught the 23-year-old and seized 516 kilograms of marijuana from the van.

Torres-Benavides will serve his sentence consecutively with another five-year sentence. In May, he pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense.

Torres-Benavides has been in federal custody since his April 2010 arrest and will remain in custody until he’s transferred to the prison facility where he’ll serve out his sentence.

The 23-year-old, who is in the U.S. illegally, is subject to deportation upon completing his prison term.

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