U.S. Border Patrol agents chasing suspected drug traffickers on the Texas border allegedly crossed into Mexico and had a brief standoff with Mexican police officers. No shots were fired, a Mexican official said Friday. Jose Luis Delgado, an officer in the town of Guadalupe, 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Ciudad Juarez — across from El Paso, Texas — said he and two officers were responding Thursday afternoon to a report that a pickup truck loaded with marijuana had been abandoned in the Rio Grande when they encountered several U.S. Border Patrol agents on Mexican territory.Delgado said he and the officers arrived with their weapons drawn. "When we arrived (the U.S. officials) drew their weapons," Delgado said in a telephone interview. Delgado said 20 or 25 U.S. Border Patrol officers "wearing green uniforms" had formed a human chain along a shallow area of the river and were unloading the packages from the vehicle when he identified himself as a police officer and asked them to leave Mexican territory. The U.S. officials returned to the U.S. side of the border and a few remained there until Mexican officials towed the car, Delgado said. "They even asked us to turn the car over to them but I said no," Delgado said.
Rogelio Garcia, a spokesman with the U.S. Border Patrol El Paso sector, confirmed that U.S. agents seized about 140 kilograms (300 pounds) of marijuana from a pickup truck that at least two suspected drug traffickers abandoned in the river before running into Mexico.