US: Woman arrested for smuggling drugged child across Southern border with fake birth certificate

A 24-year-old lawful permanent US resident has been arrested after allegedly trying to smuggle a sedated child into the United States using a forged birth certificate, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Gloria Lopez-Corona was caught at the San Luis port of entry in Arizona. She attempted to bring in a five-year-old boy while presenting a birth certificate for a two-year-old, which raised suspicion.

Officials determined the boy was an unaccompanied minor from Mexico. He appeared sleepy and disoriented. Authorities later found he had been given melatonin gummies.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized the gummies and other items believed to have been used to drug the child.

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Lopez-Corona admitted she was not the boy’s mother and that the birth certificate was fake. She said she has a two-year-old child of her own in Mexico.

The child reportedly told agents “that he was given gummies by his mother.”

Immigration officials identified the child’s mother as Reyna Cecilia Hernandez Reyes. She later admitted to giving her son to an unknown woman to be smuggled into the U.S.

Lopez-Corona told investigators she had been forced to smuggle the child by someone who threatened her family. She said she didn’t report it because “she did not trust the police in Mexico,” according to the New York Post.

She claimed she drove to a meeting point where an unnamed person placed the child in her car seat. Although offered $1,500, she said she turned down the money.

The plan was to send the boy to Los Angeles to join Reyes’ husband, who had illegally entered the U.S. three years ago and had been deported three times.

“This depraved individual drugged an innocent child and trafficked them into our country.

“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, DHS will protect children and stop the traffickers and smugglers that exploit children,” said Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement to Fox News.

Lopez-Corona has been charged with Alien Smuggling.

 

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(Fox news)