When several people tried to climb the border wall with bundles of marijuana in Brownsville, they didn’t know they were being watched.
The smuggling attempt that eventually ended in a car crash happened on Wednesday while Border Patrol agents were conducting operations near the border wall on Oklahoma Road.
At 11:15 a.m. that day, a field agent and a camera operator saw several people approach the south side of the wall with bundles of suspected marijuana, according to a criminal complaint.
“The subjects were seen climbing the border wall and then throwing the bundles of suspected marijuana to the north side of the wall on Oklahoma Road,” the complaint stated.
Simultaneously, agents saw a black BMW pull over on the east side of Oklahoma Road.
The complaint said that only one person successfully scaled the wall, picked up two bundles and ran toward the BMW, which is when the Border Patrol agent emerged from hiding and approached them.
The person with the bundles dropped the drugs, ran south, climbed the wall and apparently escaped while the driver of the BMW made a U-turn and took off at a high rate of speed, the complaint said.
The agent on the ground found a total of six bundles of marijuana that weighed more than 141 pounds.
A few minutes later, agents found the BMW near the intersection of Dockberry Road and FM 511 where it had crashed into two vehicles, according to the complaint, which noted that everyone involved in the crash needed medical assistance and were transported to hospitals.
The driver of the BMW, 25-year-old Brownsville resident Cristian Corona, tried to run but was quickly caught, according to Border Patrol.
He later told Drug Enforcement Administration agents that he expected to be paid $200 for each bundle he picked up, the complaint stated.
Corona made a first appearance Friday in Brownsville federal court on drug smuggling charges.
