Drug smugglers arrested in SpaceX parking lot following chase

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested two Brownsville residents in a SpaceX parking lot after they ran from Border Patrol and were caught with nearly 200 pounds of marijuana.

Javier Samano and Priscilla Hernandez are charged with knowingly and willfully possessing with the intent to distribute approximately 186 pounds of marijuana.

The incident happened at approximately 6:42 p.m. when a Border Patrol agent responded to a surveillance image activation in an area referred to as “New Pump House Road” east of the checkpoint on State Highway 4, according to a criminal complaint.

The agent was informed that several people were carrying what appeared to be bundles of narcotics toward a white Cadillac sedan parked near the Rio Grande.

When the agent got to the area they saw the Cadillac leave the area at a high rate of speed westbound on State Highway 4 toward the checkpoint.

A pursuit ensued and the agent noted the back of the Cadillac appeared weighed down and the driver of the vehicle, later identified as Hernandez, was looking back toward the agent.

The complaint noted that Hernandez reached speeds of 70 mph during the chase.

Border Patrol “deployed a vehicle immobilization device” that hit the vehicle’s tires.

Hernandez continued to travel after that before stopping in a SpaceX parking lot near the intersection of Oklahoma Avenue and State Highway 4.

After Hernandez and Samano were detained, agents found seven bundles of marijuana in the rear seating area and trunk of the vehicle.

They both made a first appearance in Brownsville federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Betancourt, who ordered them temporarily held without bond.

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