Migrant Smuggler Admits To Transporting Kids Across Border After Using Gummies To Knock Them Out
Jason Hopkins
Jason Hopkins
Immigration Reporter
September 24, 2024 11:31 AM ET
A Texas woman and others admitted to prosecutors on Friday to operating a migrant child smuggling operation, which included at times using gummies to make children sleep when passing border checkpoints.
Vanessa Valadez, a 23-year-old Texas woman, pleaded guilty to smuggling migrant children across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a press release by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). From August to September 2023, Valadez and other members of the operation brought young minors — all under the age of five — from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, into the U.S. illegally.
When members of the smuggling operation attempted to transport another young girl on Sept. 21, 2023, they were intercepted by law enforcement during a routine border inspection near Laredo at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge, according to HSI. The conspirators allegedly used an unlawfully obtained birth certificate to trick authorities into believing the minor was a family member, and they allegedly sedated the minor with melatonin gummies to keep her asleep during the border checkpoint process.
In one successfully executed example, members of the smuggling ring on the night of Sept. 29, 2023, took a young girl from a stash house run by the operation and delivered her across the border to Valadez in downtown Laredo, according to HSI. That young girl was taken by co-conspirators and delivered to unknown individuals.
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https://dailycaller.com/2024/09/24/migrant-smuggler-melatonin-gummies-border/
