Suspected smugglers flee police in three chases

STARR COUNTY - A suspected drug smuggler driving a stolen ambulance evaded police Wednesday in one of three separate chases across the Upper Valley.

The ambulance chase capped a day in which authorities seized more than 2.5 tons of marijuana but lost all the suspected smugglers after each ditched their vehicle.

Zapata County Sheriff's Office deputies chased the ambulance about 4 p.m. Wednesday for more than 10 miles across the county line to the small, Starr County river town of Salineño. The suspected smuggler crashed the vehicle into a ditch there and successfully fled on foot, Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said.

"We've had information for several months that they're using ambulances to move narcotics," Gonzalez said. He said they do plan to arrest a suspect in the case soon.

Vital Line, an Edinburg based ambulance company, reported the ambulance stolen to Rio Grande City police earlier in the day, company president Sandra Saenz said.

"Our unit was stolen and I'm not even sure who did it," Saenz said. "It was already through for the day and it was parked and they took it."

Earlier in the day at about 10:30 a.m., two men in a Ford F-250 with U.S. government plates tossed bundles of marijuana along Bentsen Road in south Mission as officers from several departments chased the suspected smugglers, local Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Johnny Hernandez said.

The two men drove the truck into the Rio Grande at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park and swam to Mexico, evading authorities but losing nearly 1,400 pounds of marijuana, Hernandez said.

Then less than two hours later, Mission police pursued a white Ford F-150 brimming with packaged bundles of what appeared to be narcotics, Mission police spokesman Lt. Martin Garza said.

"Officers could only observe one occupant in the vehicle cramped up because of the amount of bundles inside the cab," Garza said.

The chase ended south of the North American Butterfly~Association International Butterfly~Park in Mission, where the driver fled police and left behind 827 pounds of marijuana.