La Villa, Texas ? A former police officer about to face trial on drug charges and five alleged members of a violent drug gang overpowered a guard and cut through at least four fences to escape from a federal detention center near the Mexican border, officials said Wednesday.

The six inmates, including a former McAllen police officer and the alleged members of Raza Unida, fled the privately run facility in La Villa late Tuesday, officials said.

Investigators determined that the inmates overpowered a guard with a homemade knife, locked him in a room, made their way through several exit doors and used “some sort of wire cutter” to breach the fences, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said . He said no alarm sounded and the guard was not hurt.