Texas: Mexican national sentenced to 5 years for smuggling drugged children into U.S.
OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
5:05 PM – Thursday, July 2, 2026
A Mexican national has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for his role in a heinous human smuggling operation that targeted unaccompanied minor children and relied on sedating them with drug-laced candy.
Manuel Valenzuela, 35, a Mexican citizen living in El Paso, Texas, received his sentence in federal court following a guilty plea to charges including conspiracy to transport aliens and multiple counts of bringing in undocumented individuals for financial gain.
The sentencing marks a major milestone for federal law enforcement officials, who emphasized that the operational tactics utilized by Valenzuela and his co-conspirators demonstrated an absolute disregard for human life and child safety.
According to court documents and federal prosecutors, Valenzuela was a key operative in an illicit border-crossing network that illegally moved vulnerable children between the ages of 5 and 13 from Juárez, Mexico, into the United States. To minimize the risk of detection during these illicit crossings, members of the smuggling ring fed the young children candy infused with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound in marijuana, to heavily sedate them.
https://www.oann.com/newsroom/texas-mexican-national-sentenced-to-5-years-for-smuggling-drugged-children-into-u-s/
