Marijuana-Filled Truck Crashed Into Border Fence So Suspects Could Evade Capture -- and it Worked

By James King Fri., May 7 2010 at 4:07 PM

Categories: Weed

USBP

U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector seized more than 1,300 pounds of marijuana during four separate vehicle interdictions in the past 24 hours, including one stop where the suspects crashed their weed-filled truck into the border fence to evade capture.

The suspects, according to USBP spokesman Eric Cantu, got away, too.

Cantu tells New Times that border agents spotted the weed-filled truck as it crossed the United States from Mexico.

When the truck crossedr, agents began to give chase.

Once it was clear that agents were closing is, the driver turned the truck south and headed back to Mexico.

Unfortunately for the driver, there happened to be a big, steel fence in his way.

Those white bundles are full of weed.

With the fuzz hot on the driver's trail, rather than give up, he smashed the truck into the fence and hopped back over to the Mexico side, leaving the pot -- and his truck -- for the agents.

"The fence is designed to stop vehicles, not people," Cantu says. "And that's exactly what it did."

Cantu says that if smugglers are close enough to the border when they're spotted by agents, it's common for them to make a mad dash back to Mexico to evade capture.

When border agents searched the truck, they found 675 pounds of weed, which was a portion of about 1,300 pounds found during four different busts in a 24-hour period yesterday.

Border agents estimate that the street value of all the weed seized at about $1.1 million.