McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — A small unmanned aircraft system helped U.S. Border Patrol agents find and arrest five migrants after a chase and bailout in rural Brooks County, near where 10 migrants died in a 2021 rollover crash, the agency said.
The chase occurred on Monday in Encino after agents from the Falfurrias Station said they saw a vehicle “make an abrupt U-turn” on Highway 281, the main north-south thoroughfare that leads to the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint for the Rio Grande Valley.
The driver drove through a ranch fence before coming to a stop “where the occupants bailout out,” Border Patrol reported.
Agents used a small unmanned aircraft system to locate the migrants who they say were determined to be illegally in the United States.
“Transnational criminal organizations operating in South Texas continue to disregard public safety placing human lives in danger only to further their profits. Everyday our Falfurrias station agents target illicit activity in an effort to keep the community safe,” RGV Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez said in a statement.
The area where the migrants were arrested is near where 10 migrants died and 20 were injured in August 2021 when a van packed with migrants rolled over trying to evade law enforcement.
