Border Patrol: Texas pot smugglers drive truck into Rio Grande in desperate escape



Click through to see the strangest drug-smuggling tactics used in Texas and along the border. less U.S. Border Patrol agents say two suspect drug smugglers drove their truck into the Rio Grande river in a desperate, but successful, escape.

Click through to see the strangest drug-smuggling tactics used in ... more U.S. Border Patrol agents say two suspect drug smugglers drove their truck into the Rio Grande river in a desperate, but successful, escape. Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Border Patrol: Texas pot smugglers drive truck into Rio Grande in desperate escape 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

In a Hail Mary escape, two drug-smuggling suspects pursued by Brownsville Border Patrol agents drove their truck into the Rio Grande on Tuesday morning.

Authorities said the two suspects evaded arrest by swimming back to Mexico, but left behind more than 800 pounds of marijuana valued at $641,320.

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Border Patrol agents first spotted the smugglers driving through a local golf course in a white truck filled with what appeared to bundles of narcotics.

Incredibly, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has a name for this type of escape due to its frequency: "splashdown."

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In the first half of 2017, the border agency has reported an "increase in splashdown activity" within the Rio Grande Valley Sector. So far, 14 splashdown events have occurred throughout the U.S.-Mexico border, with 10 being reported near the Rio Grande area.

Click through above to see strangest drug-smuggling tactics used in Texas and along the border.