Field training officer required multiple surgeries to repair damage
"They're buddies of mine. They're friends of mine, " said Randy De Leon. He's a Border Patrol agent, who is breaking his silence.
"They're my family. And anybody would do just about anything for family," he told CHANNEL 5 NEWS.
De Leon was raised in West Texas and is the third of four children. The all-star athlete moved to the Rio Grande Valley to be with his grandmother.
He earned a criminal justice degree from UTPA and was honored, after he and his brother pulled an elderly woman from a home that exploded.
He met his wife Luisa and they have four children.
The Border Patrol is part of their family. The field training officer said, "I believe in what I do. I really do. I believe in the badge I wear, the patches I wear, the uniform I wear…"
"There's a saying in the Border Patrol: One man, one river. And I try to be that one man sometimes."
While De Leon fought on the frontline for eight years, one day in 2010 will stay with him forever.
"I remember that night clearly. I was working the evening shift. I was training," recalls De Leon.
The Border Patrol agent and a trio of trainees were near Hidalgo on March 29, 2010. They heard drug smugglers were on the move and split up. De Leon parked his unit near the river.
"Within 20 minutes, the vehicle was coming down to load up," he said.
He remembered 10 to 15 drug mules were packing drugs into a vehicle. "They loaded up roughly… I'd say roughly 1,000 pounds in a matter of seconds," De Leon said.
He approached the vehicle head on. "When he saw me, he did a U-turn and went back to the river," he told us..
Via:KRGV.com
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