A joint operation along the southern Texas border seized hundreds of pounds of marijuana from Mexico over the weekend, officials said Monday.
Officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Border Patrol, and the Texas Game Wardens were arrested around 6 p.m. Saturday in the border town of Rio Grande, a DPS spokesperson told Fox News.
A group of smugglers allegedly rafted 463 pounds of marijuana wrapped in multiple packages from Mexico and loaded it into a car.
Fentanyl-exposed Arizona baby saved after Phoenix police administer emergency Narcan dose
When authorities caught the smugglers, they fled back to the Mexican side of the border, they said.
The bust was part of Operation Lone Star, an initiative by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other officials to combat illegal immigration and crime at the border. Abbott said last week that authorities had seized drugs of all kinds, including 336 million “lethal doses” of fentanyl, since the security mission began in March.
The effort, he said, is a response to the Biden administration’s refusal to address the border issue.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“This is all a byproduct of Biden’s open-border policy, which has resulted in about 2.2 million people being arrested across the border in the past year,” Abbott said. “With so many people coming across the border with the help of Mexican drug cartels, it makes it easier for large amounts of fentanyl to cross the border.”