Daniel Borunda, El Paso Times 9:50 p.m. MDT June 30, 2016

EL PASO - U.S. Border Patrol agents on Tuesday arrested a convicted sex offender in El Paso and found marijuana in a Volkswagen Beetle that broke down at a checkpoint outside Las Cruces.

On Tuesday evening, agents stopped three undocumented immigrants who had crossed the Rio Grande near the University of Texas at El Paso, officials said Thursday.

Border cameras filmed Jose Alberto Gallegos Rodriguez, 39, of Mexico, and two other men cross the river and attempt to hide from agents in thick brush, officials said.

In 1987, Gallegos was convicted of sexual assault in Arkansas, Border Patrol officials said. He served one year of a five-year prison sentence before he was deported.

Also on Tuesday, agents found 75 pounds of marijuana in a Volkswagen Beetle that broke down about 50 feet from the Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 25 north of Las Cruces.

Officials said that smoke was coming out of the rear of the bug. The driver began to push it toward the checkpoint and agents helped push the car.

During an inspection, a drug-sniffing dog and an X-ray scan alerted agents to marijuana hidden in compartments in the car's floor, officials said. The driver, Rubén Chacon Rodríguez, 19, of Mexico, was arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news...a-vw/86585528/