Customs Agents Shoot Drug Ring Suspect

Customs Service agents critically wounded a suspected drug dealer Wednesday as he tried to escape arrest, police said.

Members of a suspected methamphetamine ring were headed to a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant about 3 a.m. to meet a woman who had smuggled drugs into the country hours earlier. However, border inspectors had caught her and she had agreed to cooperate.

Agents watched two members of the ring arrive together and waited until a third came in a separate car, a Customs Service spokesman said.

When the third man pulled into the lot, an agent ordered him out of the vehicle, but he gunned his car toward her in an attempt to flee, officials said. The agent and her companion each fired and the man was struck once in the head.