Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 22 people during three separate smuggling events, with one involving a stolen vehicle, according to a news release Wednesday.
Kingsville Border Patrol agents saw a white GMC truck with its lights off on the side of US Highway 77 near Riviera Tuesday evening.
Agents later saw the same vehicle on the road and decided to initiate a stop.
The driver refused to yield which led the agents on a vehicle pursuit, the agency said in the release.
While in pursuit, a grey Chevrolet truck overtook the agents’ vehicle and slowed down in front of them in order to allow the white GMC truck to distance itself from the pursuing agents.
Eventually, both trucks drove off the road and onto an open field where they came to a stop.
Multiple people fled into the brush from both vehicles as additional backup units arrived to help.
Nine people were taken into Border Patrol custody. However, neither of the drivers were located.
The trucks had fictitious Texas paper tags and one was reported stolen out of Houston, according to the release.
Kleberg County took custody of both vehicles.
That same evening, an agent conducted a vehicle stop on a grey Ford Fusion in north Edinburg. The front seat passenger fled immediately and was not found.
Once interviewed, the driver and remaining occupants of the vehicle admitted they were in the United States illegally.
Agents seized the Fusion and transported the detainees to the station to be processed.
A similar incident occurred early Wednesday when the occupants of a red Nissan Titan truck fled during a traffic stop near Encino.
When the truck came to a stop, the occupants bailed and fled into the nearby brush.
Agents were able to apprehend nine of them, but not the driver.
The occupants were from Honduras and El Salvador, according to the release.
