YUMA - Suspected smugglers who tried to use ramps to drive an SUV over a 14-foot-tall border fence had to abandon their plan when the Jeep became stuck on top of the barrier, authorities said Wednesday.
Agents patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border near the Imperial Sand Dunes in California's southeast corner spotted the Jeep Cherokee teetering atop the fence Tuesday morning, Border Patrol spokesman Spencer Tippets said. The vehicle was perched about five miles west of the Arizona state line.
Two smugglers on the Mexican side of the border were trying to free the Jeep when the agents approached, Tippets said. They ran farther into Mexico and escaped.
The Jeep was empty, but agents said it was probably filled with contraband like bales of marijuana before it got stuck.
The smugglers had built ramps to drive up and over the fence, something that has been tried at least once before. In April 2011, agents found a truck that had ramps built onto it and had driven up to the border fence. A pickup had driven up and over the fence, but it was spotted and its occupants were captured, Tippets said.
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Agents in Southern Arizona have also encountered smuggling attempts in the last several years in which ramps were used to allow the smugglers to drive vehicles over border fences.
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In early 2011, drug smugglers near Naco were seen on video surveillance using a catapult to launch bundles of marijuana over the border line. Mexican officials went to the scene and seized a trailer-mounted catapult and 45 pounds of marijuana. Also, last November, Mexican troops seized two catapults in a raid on a house in Agua Prieta, across from Douglas.
Source: Star archives
