U.S. Border Patrol agents at the Brownsville station seized 665 pound of marijuana they say drug smugglers tried to cross at the Rio Grande.
According to a Border Patrol news release, agents on patrol Thursday around the Brownsville area spotted a white Ford Explorer they believed was used to smuggle illegal narcotics.
The agents followed the Explorer and attempted to stop it, but the driver changed directions and headed to the Rio Grande.
The Explorer “splashed down into the river” and two men got out of the vehicle, carrying what is believed to have been marijuana, and returned to Mexico, the release stated.
While at the river, the agents found a trailer retrofitted with barrels around the frame making it able to stay afloat. The agents suspected the Explorer had been rafted across the river into the United States.
U.S. authorities contacted their Mexican counterparts who went to the area and seized two vehicles and two bundles of marijuana near the Mexico river bank.
Border Patrol agents recovered 29 bundles of marijuana totaling 665 pounds which had been stashed inside the Explorer.
The marijuana has an estimated street value of more than $530,000, border agents said.
Earlier in the week, agents from the Brownsville station recovered 124 pounds of marijuana which had been abandoned near the River Bend Golf Resort.
Authorities estimate the street value of this seizure is more than $99,000.
