GREGORY ALAN GROSS / Union-Tribune A Border Patrol agent scans the horizon for signs of the driver of a drug-laden truck who fled after shooting an agent in the leg.

LIVE OAK SPRINGS – A U.S. Border Patrol agent was wounded in the leg by a shotgun blast Friday morning when he tried to intercept a pickup truck loaded with hundreds of pounds of narcotics.

The unidentified agent, who is based in Campo, was taken by ambulance to a hospital. His wounds were not life-threatening, according to a Border Patrol spokesman.

Heavily-armed Border Patrol agents, backed by Sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers, sealed off an area south of Interstate 8 between Live Oak Springs and Crestwood Road. Officers searched the area with dogs while two Border Patrol helicopters repeatedly swept the canyons alongside Old Highway 80.

The shooting occurred about 8 a.m., according to Border Patrol Agent Raul Martinez. The single occupant of the pickup shot the agent, then drove off in the truck before abandoning the vehicle a short time later and running into the brush.

By the time the gunman left his vehicle, "the truck was riding on its rims," Martinez said.

He said the shooting took place in the Tierra del Sol area near the U.S.-Mexico border, about 60 miles east of San Diego. The area is notorious for both drug and illegal immigrant smuggling.

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