Mexican drug smugglers try to cross border fence in Jeep
Pair flee back to Mexico after attempt to cross border fence in one-tonne SUV comes unstuck
The rules of the smuggling game across the US-Mexico border have been written unofficially for years - if a bad guy moving drugs or people encounters a border fence, they tunnel under it.
But a group of enterprising - or desperate - smugglers got caught trying an alternative method. They built a flimsy, makeshift ramp and tried to drive over a 4.5 metre tall US Border Patrol fence near where Arizona, California and Mexico meet.
It didn't work out, as photographs testify.
A US Border Patrol spokeswoman in Arizona told the that a pair of suspected smugglers tried to drive over the metal fence in southwestern Arizona just after midnight on Tuesday but abandoned the vehicle and fled back into Mexico as agents approached.
"That area is just west of the Arizona-California line," spokesman Victor Brabble said. "There is a floating fence there that we move when the dunes move. I guess the only way to get past it is to scale it."
Agents from the Yuma, Arizona, border station had been patrolling the Imperial Sand Dunes area when they spotted the silver Jeep Cherokee attempting unsuccessfully to scale the fence.
The fleeing smugglers left behind their one-tonne SUV balanced precariously on the top of the fence between the axles, one half dangling over US territory and one half over Mexico.
