By Karen Gleason
Officials in Mexico have recovered the body of a 24-year-old man who drowned in the Rio Grande Tuesday.
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez told the 830 Times Wednesday he was notified of the possible drowning shortly after it occurred.
Martinez said a 23-year-old man from Mexico illegally crossed the Rio Grande and entered the United States sometime Tuesday afternoon. When the man encountered Border Patrol agents, he informed them he had crossed the river with his 24-year-old brother.
“He told the Border Patrol that his brother didn’t make it across,” Martinez said.
The sheriff said Border Patrol agents and sheriff’s deputies began looking for the man’s brother along the Texas side of the river.
“Then we were notified that the young man’s brother’s body had been recovered on the Mexico side of the river,” Martinez said.
The sheriff said he was told both men are residents of Ciudad Acuña, Coah., Mexico.
Since the deceased man was a Mexican national and his body was recovered in Mexico, no further action will be taken in the U.S., Martinez said.
“That was the extent of our involvement in this,” the sheriff said.
