Almost 2 1/2 tons of pot stopped at RGC bridge

The first seizure occurred near the Rio Grande when a group of people tried snuck 821 pounds of pot across using several rafts. They loaded the drugs onto a 2000 Chevrolet Blazer before Border Patrol agents chased after them. All of them ran across the river into Mexico.

The next day, officials found 3,379 pounds of marijuana inside a 1999 Chevrolet van parked at a convenience store in Garceño. The driver, who was behaving suspiciously when officials spotted him, was chased but not found.

Another seizure occurred at the Rio Grande after a grey Mercury Marquis loaded two tires filled with marijuana that were brought across the bridge by several people who fled to Mexico after delivering the drugs. Border Patrol agents confiscated 62 pounds of marijuana from the tires. The driver, who was not caught, fled the vehicle after authorities approached him at a convenience store near the river.

Another 507 pounds of marijuana were confiscated at 8 p.m. Tuesday when agents spotted a person on an all-terrain vehicle loaded with bundles of marijuana. That driver also escaped to Mexico.

Border Patrol officials urge anyone with information to call (800) 863-9382.

GRANJENO | DRUG BUST

Authorities retrieved about 800 pounds of marijuana from the Rio Grande early Wednesday afternoon.

Hidalgo County Precinct 3 constable's deputies witnessed several men loading bundled marijuana into a Pontiac Trans Sport minivan Wednesday morning in Anzalduas County Park, near Granjeno, said Dora L. Muñoz, commander of the Hidalgo County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force.

Deputies called in the task force to investigate alleged drug trafficking and tried to pull over the van, but the driver took off, drove the vehicle into the Rio Grande and then swam to Mexico, Muñoz said.

Divers from the Mission Fire Department and other local law enforcement personnel spent several hours pulling the van from the river.

MISSION | IMMIGRANT BUST

Nine illegal immigrants were picked up late Tuesday morning in the parking lot of the H.E.B. Plus at the intersection of U.S. Expressway 83 and Shary Road.

Mission police began pursuing a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck headed north along Shary Road after they received a tip from a "concerned citizen," Assistant Police Chief Martin Garza said.

After officers pulled over the truck, they found six men, two women and a child riding in the vehicle. The suspected immigrant smuggler driving the truck was a U.S. citizen living in Texas, Garza said.

The immigrants were turned over to U.S. Border Patrol agents.

____

Monitor staff writers Jared Taylor and Ana Ley compiled this report.