YUMA, Ariz. — The U.S. Border Patrol says smugglers who used a homemade ramp to drive a camouflaged car over a border fence fled into Mexico Wednesday before they could be arrested.
The agency says the incident happened in Arizona when agents who were on patrol spotted tracks from an off-road vehicle just four miles north of the border.
A helicopter crew eventually spotted a modified Jeep carrying 11 people and suspected bundles of marijuana. The driver attempted to use a homemade ramp across a border fence but got stuck. The people in the car fled to Mexico with the drugs.
While most illicit drugs enter the country through ports of entry, marijuana is routinely smuggled through the desert. Still, marijuana seizures by the Border Patrol have dropped from 2.3 million pounds in 2012 to just over 439,500 pounds last year.
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