Heart-pounding police dashcam footage captures Texas state troopers reaching nearly 150 mph while on a high-speed car chase in pursuit of a 15-year-old driver lugging five illegal immigrants.
The 2-minute video, posted on X by the Texas Department of Public Safety this week, shows the fleeing muscle car flying through a US Border Patrol checkpoint with cops in hot pursuit on the night of Nov. 7.
At times the car speeds off and is nearly out of sight, but at others slows down so much that it appears the driver is about to cut off the trooper before taking off again.
The chase even goes through a construction zone.
At another point, the driver pulls over and lets three of the immigrants jump out and into the brush before speeding off again with the troopers still in pursuit.
The teen, whose name was not released, then drove through the border patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias before troopers were able to deploy tire deflation strips and were finally able to stop the car — with the teen hurled to the ground and handcuffed, the video shows.
“The teen from Palmview was arrested & charged with evading & human smuggling,” Lt. Chris Olivarez, a spokesman for the department, wrote in the online post.
“Five illegal immigrants were apprehended & referred to US Border Patrol,” said Olivarez, who described the lead-footed teenager as “a 15-year-old smuggler.”
Three of the immigrants are seen in the back of a squad car at the end of the video.
According to WKATU-News, the police pursuit on US-281 on Nov. 7 reached up to 147 mph.