Four people have been charged for their roles in a scheme to smuggle children from Mexico into the United States, sometimes using candy laced with THC to sedate them during smuggling events, following an investigation by ICE Homeland Security Investigations.
“Every child placed in a smugglers hands is a life placed in danger,” said ICE HSI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Jason T. Stevens. “These predators see desperation as an opportunity. To these criminals, vulnerable children as nothing more than currency-a means to turn human lives into profit. The smuggling of children is one of the most callous and reprehensible crimes HSI investigates, and we won’t stop pursuing those who profit by endangering young lives.”
Mexican nationals Susana Guadian and Daniel Guadian, both 50; Dianne Guadian, 32, a U.S. citizen; and Manuel Valenzuela, 35, a legal U.S. resident living in El Paso, were charged in the Western District of Texas by a criminal complaint with conspiracy to transport aliens and bringing aliens to the U.S. for financial gain. According to the complaint, the defendants were part of an alien smuggling organization that brought unaccompanied alien children between the ages of five and 13 illegally into the U.S. from Juarez, Mexico, posing as their parents and using U.S. documents falsely claiming the documents belonged to the children. During at least one smuggling event, the alien children were given gummy candies containing marijuana to sedate them, sending one child to the hospital with marijuana poisoning.
The original announcement can be found here.