Heavy drinking and fast running waters created the conditions for another drowning this weekend. On Sunday morning, Orange Walk Police went to the river bank in Santa Cruz Village – which is at the extreme southwestern portion of the Orange Walk District where they saw the body of 28 year old Elias Vargas, a resident of nearby Yo Creek.

Those in the area told police that at 12:30 am that morning he was coming from Botes which is a popular border village in Mexico and he was drunk. Still, he tried to swim across the Rio Hondo into Belize but went beneath the depths and never resurfaced.