McALLEN | CAR DEATH

A 30-year-old man was killed after a crash early Tuesday morning on the Bicentennial Boulevard access ramp off Expressway 83.

The man’s 2001 red Ford Contour crashed into the concrete barrier on the access ramp at 12:43 a.m. McAllen police have not re-leased any details of the collision and continue to investigate.

Police were still withholding the man’s name Tuesday night as they tried to contact his immediate family.

In August last year a 23-year-old woman hit a barrier on the bridge connecting the Expressway 83 frontage road to Bicentennial. The impact shifted a guard wall approximately 6 inches but didn’t affect the structural integrity of the bridge. Investigators believe alco-hol may have played a role in that wreck.

The expressway off-ramp ends at a “T” intersection at Bicentennial. The bridge and off-ramp have been criticized for being too simi-lar to a highway on-ramp.

Mission police Chief Leo Longoria’s daughter Amanda died in a similar collision on Jan 1, 2005.

An official with the Texas Department of Transportation said that for the “everyday user,” the bridge is safe.

“Every time there’s been an accident like that, there seems to be other extraneous circumstances,” such as drugs or alcohol, said Jesse Neal, a local spokesman for TxDOT.

SALINEÑO | SNOW MOUNDS

U.S. Border Patrol agents stumbled onto a group of drug smugglers loading 746 pounds of cocaine into a truck Monday.

Officers at the Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station spotted a group of people loading a blue Ford F-150 with bundles of drugs. The suspects fled and swam across the river when agents approached.

In the truck agents found 30 bags of cocaine with a street value estimated at more than $23 million, according to the Border Patrol.

No arrests were made in connection with seizure.

MERCEDES | DEAD BODY

U.S. Border Patrol officials found a body floating in the Rio Grande late Tuesday, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.

Officials believe the man was a Mexican citizen attempting to illegally cross the river, he said.

“Right now, we’re calling it an accidental drowning unless we uncover something else,” Treviño said.

He described the man as a young Hispanic male and said he was fully clothed except for his shoes.

“There were no signs of trauma such as a stab wound or gunshot wound,” Treviño said.

Officials did not know the man’s name or age as of Tuesday night, the sheriff said.

WESLACO | SCHOOL THREAT

Weslaco police arrested a man accused of walking into a vocational school with a gun and threatening to shoot.

Officers arrested 24-year-old Martin Gonzalez on Tuesday for allegedly carrying a gun into the South Texas Vocational Technical Institute on Monday night and making the threat.

Gonzalez apparently fled the scene when someone inside the school called police.

He is expected to be arraigned today on charges related to the incident.

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Monitor reporter Sean Gaffney compiled this report. The Valley Morning Star contributed to this report.