U.S. and Texas Police Join Forces to Combat Smugglers

U.S. Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) police are joining forces to target human smugglers who transport undocumented migrants across a stretch of the U.S. southern border.

In a dramatic chas, Texas DPS Troopers, supported by Border Patrol that was seeing the suspects via a Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) surveillance balloon, chased this white truck driven by a suspected smuggler to the Rio Grande. As the driver neared the river, he abandoned the stolen F-250 Ford truck and hopped onto a waiting raft, escaping capture back to Mexico.

Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Christopher Olivarez explained that the smugglers employ a highly organized system with lookouts, drones, guides and radios - and that system is controlled by Mexican cartels.

"Usually, on the Mexican side, the criminals, the smugglers will fly a drone to see where law enforcement is at. Then once they feel it's clear, they'll bring people across the river," Olivarez said.

The joint anti-smuggling operation uses the resources and officers of both law enforcement organizations -- the CBP Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety -- to locate, track, search for and apprehend smugglers and migrants.

Authorities used drones to track a group of migrants and then set off on foot to search the brush to detain them.

Olivarez said the operation has been going on for a year and has resulted in a number of arrests.

"The focus of this operation is to go after the smuggling guides that are bringing people across the river illegally from Mexico. We want to focus on those guides and be able to arrest them for human smuggling and file state charges on them," he said. "It’s been a very effective operation. We have made well over 100 arrests over the course of the last year since we started this operation. And that is particularly targeting smuggling guides.”