Two cousins who crossed about 385 pounds of cocaine on horseback the day after Thanksgiving in Rio Grande City were arrested and charged with drug smuggling.
Alonso Baray-Ortiz and Enrique Baray-Chavez, both Mexican citizens, were arrested Friday and charged with possessing with the intent to distribute drugs and conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute the narcotics.
Border Patrol agents watching a part of the border known as Midway, an area known for drug trafficking, first noticed people loading suspected drug bundles onto horses and riding them north on Wednesday, according to a criminal complaint.
Two days later, agents saw two men on horseback traveling with suspected bundles of drugs in the same area.
Border Patrol agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers responded and created a perimeter. The cousins rode into the brush, but only the horses re-emerged without saddles, bundles, and riders. The horses ran east and the riders, Baray-Ortis and Baray-Chavez, headed south.
Some agents went into the brush and located the seven large bundles of drugs, which later tested positive for cocaine, and the two abandoned saddles. The Baray cousins jumped a fence toward a home 100 yards south of where the drugs were abandoned.
Law enforcement officers created another perimeter around the home and found the two men trying to hide in chicken coops. One of them tried to flee when agents approached but he was ultimately arrested. The other was taken into custody without incident, according to the complaint.
DEA agents attempted to interview the men after they were taken to the Rio Grande City Border Patrol station. Enrique Baray-Chavez told agents he lied about his name when he was arrested and claimed his name was Enrique Chavez-Cardenas, and said he was Baray-Ortis’ cousin.
Baray-Ortis reportedly said he knew he was arrested for narcotics.
Both men invoked their right to an attorney.
The seized cocaine weighed 174.5 kilograms or about 385 pounds.
Both men are scheduled to have their initial appearance before a U.S. District Judge J. Scott Hacker on Monday.
