Border Patrol arrests man, seizes 1,250 pounds of pot in Starr County Posted: Wednesday, June 12, 2013 6:03 pm
Jacob Fischler | The Monitor
Posted on June 12, 2013

CUEVITAS — U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a man Tuesday after he bailed out of a minivan with more than 1,250 pounds of marijuana inside.
Horseback patrol agents using night vision equipment near the rural Starr County community watched a fast-moving minivan travel southbound toward the Rio Grande about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to a criminal complaint. As the vehicle stopped, the agents saw several people loading packages into it.

The van then headed northbound toward the agents. The agents shined a spotlight on the minivan, and it came to a complete stop and the driver and a passenger bailed out and ran.
The driver swam across the river to Mexico and was not captured by authorities.
With the help of a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter, the agents found the passenger, Cipriano Uvaldo Montes — a U.S. citizen either 18 or 19 years old — lying down in a field ten yards from the minivan.
Agents discovered 134 packages of pot weighing more than 1,250 pounds inside the vehicle. They brought the drug and Montes to the Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station for processing and questioning.
During questioning, Montes told agents he had been hanging out with two friends at about 7:00 p.m. Tuesday. His friends asked him if he wanted to make $200 to pick up “mota” — a Spanish slang word for marijuana. Montes agreed and his friends dropped him off with the driver of the minivan in Sullivan City at about 9:30 p.m.
Montes told agents he did not know the driver’s name, referring to him only as “Rey.”
Montes was arraigned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in McAllen on a charge of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

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