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STORY: The agents in this car are with the Texas Department of Public Safety, and they're in pursuit of a suspected human smuggler in a white pickup truck.A Reuters camera operator was granted rare access to this high-speed chase near the U.S.-Mexico border. These agents are part of a joint operation between the U.S. Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety to target human smugglers who transport undocumented migrants across a stretch of the U.S. southern border."Looks like he's driving toward the river."That's Lt. Christopher Olivarez on the right, who said the suspect seemed to be racing back toward the river, and cross back to Mexico before being caught."This is typically what they do. Once they can load up somewhere here, they get engaged by law enforcement. They'll turn around, the smugglers, and try and drive toward the river, which, that's where we're going right now, toward the river. So more than likely, they're going to bail out, and try and get back to Mexico."RADIO: Guys he's headed toward the river, there was a raft in the river.OLIVAREZ: There's a raft right now, in Mexico, waiting for him. So, it's all coordinated, they're communicating with each other, so if this person actually makes it to the river, there's probably a raft... go! Go! Go!RADIO: BAIL OUT! BAIL OUT! The driver. He's in the water...This time, the agents weren't quick enough.Several individuals were spotted on the Mexican side. All they recovered was the vehicle.OLIVAREZ: Usually all the back seats are taken out. This particular vehicle, you can see all the wires are pulled out, there's no key, chances are, it's going to be stolen.It's a game of cat-and-mouse, and both sides are always adapting to the other's tactics.OLIVAREZ: "The criminals, the smugglers will fly a drone to see where law enforcement is at. Then once they feel it's clear, they'll bring people across the river. [edit] Then we saw this white truck. Border Patrol was behind it. Then we got behind it and then it turned into a chase. The driver was able to jump back into the river. There was already a raft waiting for him in the river that took him back to Mexico. This is usually what they use. This individual left his radio behind. So they're constantly communicating with people in Mexico while they're being chased, that way they can try to find a way to evade capture, which in this case, the driver was able to. There was nobody in the truck but when we looked across the river, there’s probably about 10 more people that were looking to cross over the river but we were able to stop them which is a good thing.”The joint anti-smuggling operation uses the resources and officers of both law enforcement organizations -- the Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety -- to locate, track, search for and apprehend smugglers and migrants.Earlier in June, authorities used drones to track a group of migrants and then set off on foot to search the brush to detain them.Olivarez said the operation has been going on for a year and has resulted in a number of arrests.“And the focus of this operation is to go after the smuggling guides that are bringing people across the river illegally from Mexico. We want to focus on those guides and be able to arrest them for human smuggling and file state charges on them. It’s been a very effective operation. We have made well over 100 arrests over the course of the last year since we started this operation. And that is particularly targeting smuggling guides.”These operations come as U.S. President Joe Biden has grappled with record numbers of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally on his watch. The Democrat is seeking re-election in November and recently rolled out a restrictive new asylum ban at the border to deter crossers.Biden's Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, has vowed to crack down aggressively if he wins another term in the White House.U.S. efforts to restrict entry have proven lucrative for criminal gangs, who can charge and extort vulnerable migrants seeking better lives north of the border.Video released last week by the Texas Department of Public Safety shows a traffic stop where officers discover three people hidden in the trunk of a car.Texas officials charged the driver and front seat passenger with six counts of human smuggling, DPS said.These migrants, apprehended last week by Olivarez and his officers, show signs of being part of a larger trafficking operation.“Some of them are wearing wristbands, colored wristbands, and those are designated by the cartels in Mexico. They put those wristbands on these individuals before they come across the river and that is to signify how much they paid, what cartel essentially owns them, because they are a commodity. And they come across the river and they’re told to discard those wristbands at the river. But these seven behind me, they had them still on, so that does signify that they paid a cartel to get across and they were guided by a smuggler.”