(NewsNation) — Dramatic new video from the Texas Department of Public Safety provides a look inside the dangerous cat-and-mouse game playing out at the southern border between criminal smugglers and law enforcement.
In one pursuit captured on camera, a smuggler in a stolen pickup truck carrying six undocumented migrants brazenly attempts to evade authorities. The chase unfolds across Val Verde County, with the driver blowing through multiple intersections before crashing into a tree after tearing through a ranch fence.
The smuggler and migrants then scatter on foot trying to flee the scene. But with aerial support from the Texas DPS Aircraft Operations unit, authorities managed to arrest the smuggler and track down the six migrants, who were turned over to U.S. Border Patrol.
The smuggler was identified as Carlos Lombardich-Villalobos of Lockhart, Texas. He faces a litany of charges including smuggling of persons, criminal mischief, trespassing, deadly conduct, evading arrest and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
This high-speed pursuit was just one of many unfolding amid the border crisis.
In another incident, video shows a smuggler in a pickup leading authorities on a chase before making a desperate run for the Rio Grande. With helicopters hovering overhead, the driver plunges the truck into the river and swims back to Mexico in a bid for freedom.
Border officials say they are also seeing an uptick in American teenagers being recruited by cartels and smuggling organizations to move undocumented immigrants.