New Mexico agents shoot back at smugglers
Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Posted: 07/21/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

Border Patrol agents and drug smugglers exchanged gunfire early Monday in the desert about two miles north of the border in New Mexico.

Agents were fired upon while approaching smugglers walking with marijuana loads on their backs. The backpackers fled when agents returned fire. There were no known injuries, an agency spokesman said.

A 23-year-old man from Mexico was arrested and agents found 562 pounds of marijuana abandoned. A search for the other smugglers continued Monday in the desert about 20 miles east of Douglas, Ariz.

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