Suspected smugglers who tried to use ramps to
drive an SUV over a 4.3m tall border fence had to abandon their
plan when the Jeep became stuck on top of the barrier, authorities
said Wednesday.
Agents patrolling the US-Mexico border near the
Imperial Sand Dunes in California's southeast corner spotted the
Jeep Cherokee teetering atop the fence early Tuesday, Border Patrol
spokesman Spencer Tippets said. The vehicle was perched about five
miles west of the Colorado River and 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 further into Mexico and escaped.
The Jeep was empty, but agents said it was
probably filled with contraband like bales of marijuana before it
got high-centred atop the fence.
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.
The agency's Yuma sector has seen a 95 percent
reduction in human smuggling in recent years, freeing up agents to
focus on drug smugglers.
"Because of how successful we are we don't
have all the clutter like we had in years past," Tippets said. "Now
that all the clutter is gone, we're able to focus on things that
are bigger threats."
The terrain in western Arizona and eastern
California has little vegetation and is much less rugged than the
land in southeastern Arizona, so smugglers have a harder time
making it into the US without being spotted