Texas Border: Child Smuggler Caught in the Act - Mother also Apprehended
Child recovered unharmed by Texas State Troopers in Del Rio
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) thwarted a child smuggling operation along the Texas Border resulting in the rescue of the child, as well as the arrests of both the human smuggler and the mother who admitted to paying him.
This saga played out on Friday, November 29, 2024, in Val Verde County. That's where a surveillance camera captured the smuggler running toward the Rio Grande in Mexico carrying a child - who was then illegally brought across the border into Texas.
A State Trooper later stopped a pick-up truck in Del Rio being driven by a man wearing clothing matching that of the human smuggler seen on the surveillance video, a five-year-old girl (whose clothing also matched that seen by the surveillance camera), along with a woman who identified herself as the child's mother.
"The mother, Dolores Lopez, from Mexico, a temporary resident residing in North Carolina, was inside the Ram 1500. She stated that she located a smuggling organization via the Internet, which agreed to smuggle her daughter into the United States for $8,000." - Lt. Chris Olivarez, Texas Department of Public Safety
"Troopers arrested and charged the smuggler, a permanent resident, Roman Ibarra Rojo, from Mexico, with smuggling of persons younger than 18 years of age. Rojo confessed that he was going to be paid $1,000 to smuggle the 5-year-old female child." - Lt. Chris Olivarez, Texas Department of Public Safety
The smuggler was arrested by DPS officers and faces state charges. The mother and child were turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol.
The rescue of the child and the apprehension of her mother and human smuggler came one day after Texas DPS Officers in Maverick County rescued a ten-year-old Salvadoran boy found crying and alone in a remote section of Maverick County after being abandoned by human smugglers there and left for dead.
Should more be done to prevent children being smuggled into the U.S. along our Southern Border?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
