SAN ANTONIO -- No longer dumping their drug loads and running for the border, DPS Training Officer Tim Ochsner said he and other DPS Aircraft pilots have seen smugglers in stolen trucks loaded down with hundred of pounds of marijuana heading back to the Rio Grande during high speed pursuits with law enforcement.

"There's probably been 15 to 20 of those in the last two or three months," said Ochsner because of do-or-die pressure from Mexican drug cartels.

Recently, DPS helicopters, among a new fleet of 14 statewide funded by the Texas Legislature, assisted law enforcement officers on the ground in two such incidents near Mission.

Video provided by DPS aircraft shows a stolen truck being driven at high rate of speed on a narrow levee in Anzalduas Park. It had crashed through a gate after earlier swerving around spikes laid down by officers to stop the driver.

"Whatever he can do to get back to the river," said Ochsner, although the fleeing smuggler was apparently unaware a DPS helicopter was above him in the night sky. "Cause his mind is pretty focused on what's going on the ground."

Ochsner said the driver also had alerted his fellow smugglers waiting for him with rafts at the ready in the Rio Grande River. He said a standard practice these days is for the stolen vehicle to be ditched in the river, as seen in the DPS video, then bales and bales of marijuana are quickly off-loaded into the rafts.

As law enforcement closes in on the ground, Ochsner said the video also shows as the rafts are being paddled across, about two dozen more smugglers wearing leg holsters with pistols are on the Mexican side.

DPS pilots warn the officers on the United States side of the danger. Instead, the camera on board the DPS helicopter captures the frenzied salvage operation below.

"You can tell there's a sense of urgency here," said Ochsner given the smugglers and even their families could be killed by the cartels if the marijuana worth millions of dollars is lost.

"Ten-four, sir. Vehicles are loading up about to leave," a local dispatcher can be heard acknowledging the DPS Tactical Flight Officer's description of what is occurring.

A very similar incident, except it was during the day, involved another truck in a lengthy high speed chase on a rural road near the river. DPS video also shows that vehicle going into the water with only its tailgate visible.

Men on rafts can be seen scrambling to salvage several large bales of marijuana now floating in the Rio Grande, and then somehow making it to the Mexican side. Although those smugglers eluded the ongoing border crackdown from below - and above - Ochsner said photos taken by DPS pilots on Monday are "the first documented direct interaction between DPS and the Mexican Army that we know of."

Captured across the river from the Rio Grande Valley, the photos show smugglers being held at gunpoint by Mexican Army troops. Ochsner pilots the EC-145, the largest of the DPS helicopters loaded with crime fighting technology, built at a cost of $7.4 million, although it has assisted law enforcement in rescues, manhunts, evacuations and other situations statewide, its primary mission is border enforcement.

"You bet, and that was the main purpose for this machine," said Ochsner. "We wouldn't be nearly as useful."

The EC-145 with the striking DPS logo and colors, is large enough for eight passengers and a two-person crew, yet it can fly up to 135 mph. It also has a large hoist, thermal imager, infrared capabilities and a million-candlepower light that turns night into sun. There's also a sophisticated global positioning system as well as radio and phone communication with law enforcement agencies.

Given the drug cartels are said to be always trying to stay a step ahead of law enforcement, do they have their own EC-145?

"Not any time soon, I hope," Ochsner answered with a smile.