PORT ISABEL, Texas — Border Patrol agents rescued three boaters from a vessel that was sinking in the waters near the Texas Coast.
The rescue took place earlier this week in the area known as Laguna Madre not far from the tourist resort town of South Padre Island.
According to information provided to Breitbart Texas by the U.S. Border Patrol, agents on boats from unit that patrols the Rio Grande had been carrying out rescue operations when they spotted a series of rescue flares.
The Border Patrol agents from the Riverine Unit patrol the banks of the Rio Grande in an effort to disrupt the activities of drug and human smugglers.
The agents responded to the location where the flares had been fired and spotted a sinking vessel with three individuals on board. The agents had the three boaters board the police vessel until U.S Coast Guard boats arrived to the scene. From there the boaters were taken to a local marina.
One of the rescued boaters was identified as Benjamin De Leon, a local teenager who is a member of the Border Patrol Explorers Program.
“I don’t know what they (Riverine units) were doing in the area, but thank God they were there,” De Leon Jr. said in a prepared statement. “They arrived quickly and helped us out.”
The Explorer Program provides select teenagers with unique insight as to the day to day activities that Border Patrol agents carry out. As part of the program the teens also receive ongoing training that helps prepare those seeking a career in federal law enforcement.
“I guess my training as an explorer kicked in and it just came to me,” De Leon said in the prepared statement in regards to his decision to use of the rescue flares during a critical moment.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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