AUSTIN, Texas — A human smuggler carrying a longarm was spotted by a Texas law enforcement drone as the man pushed immigrants into the Rio Grande and toward the United States border.

In what state police described as a "rare" incident, the Texas Department of Public Safety's Texas Rangers on Wednesday observed a man in a white shirt and black pants with a large firearm escort approximately seven people to an island in the middle of the river in Eagle Pass.

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“Our rangers were operating their drones and they saw this individual guiding a group of migrants across the river,” said Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez during a phone call Thursday.

Olivarez said it marked the first time that state police in Eagle Pass observed a smuggler carrying a firearm while leading people across the water.

“It’s rare to see people that are smugglers that are armed,” said Olivarez. “I don’t know if they do that just for protection or to intimidate the migrants as they’re bringing them across.”

The man with the longarm only went halfway across the river and then returned to Mexico, leaving the group to wait for pickup by the U.S. Border Patrol or risk making the rest of the way across the river.

Roughly 200 miles southeast of Eagle Pass in the Rio Grande Valley region along the border, police in June reported several incidents in which individuals displaying handguns walked people across the Rio Grande. In one instance, a smuggler was dressed in full tactical gear and carried a longarm on his body.

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The incident was not far from a part of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass where two bodies were recovered Wednesday.

Eagle Pass is also the site where Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) installed a 1,000-foot-long string of buoys to prevent immigrants from wading across in a shallow area.