TUCSON, AZ - Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Executive Assistant Office of Field Operations Commissioner Diane J. Sabatino described a startling incident in a video update posted to X Thursday after Border Patrol agents in San Luis, Arizona, arrested Marlen Contreras-Lopez, 28, while she attempted to smuggle two children aged eight and 11 into the U.S. The children appeared to be drugged with sleep aids.
As reported by The New York Post, Contreras-Lopez was placed under arrest after "the children indicated to CBP officers that they were provided sleep aids in order to avoid detection." Contreras-Lopez had provided birth certificates and claimed the children were hers, but the documents didn't belong to the children who are in fact, Mexican citizens.
Court documents revealed that Contreras-Lopez attempted to wake the children when questioned by CBP officers and had great difficulty doing so. The officers saw that one of the children had to be carried and the other "struggled to walk."
Sabatino said, "The woman had difficulty waking the children. Officers observed that the children remained extremely groggy. While interviewing the children, officers soon discovered there was no family relationship between the woman and the two minors, ages 11 and eight."
One of the two children revealed to investigators that she and her brother were from southern Mexico and had traveled by bus to San Luis Rio, Colorado. There, Contreras-Lopez, a U.S. citizen from Arizona, picked them up. She said their mother was still in Mexico and they were traveling to live with their mother's boyfriend.
In other cases in recent weeks, the children have been caught up in multiple smuggling incidents with more than one relying on birth certificates for several unrelated children. "Sometimes we encounter criminal actions so horrendous they defy human decency," Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief of California’s El Centro sector told the Post.
An anonymous source told the outlet that smugglers will increasingly "recycle" children. “A few years ago when they were coming in en masse, we had to let family units in. People kept coming in and after a while we noticed the kids were the same, but the parents were different. They were recycling the kids,” the source said.
The two children smuggled by Contreras-Lopez were handed over to Mexican authorities, and the suspect was placed under arrest.
As reported by The New York Post, Contreras-Lopez was placed under arrest after "the children indicated to CBP officers that they were provided sleep aids in order to avoid detection." Contreras-Lopez had provided birth certificates and claimed the children were hers, but the documents didn't belong to the children who are in fact, Mexican citizens.
🚨DRUGGED CHILDREN RESCUED FROM SMUGGLER! Amazing work by our @DFOTucson officers in to foil this child smuggling attempt! #OFOProud pic.twitter.com/xcfS1YEkJp
— (A)Executive Asst. Commissioner Diane J. Sabatino (@OFOEAC) September 19, 2024
Court documents revealed that Contreras-Lopez attempted to wake the children when questioned by CBP officers and had great difficulty doing so. The officers saw that one of the children had to be carried and the other "struggled to walk."
Sabatino said, "The woman had difficulty waking the children. Officers observed that the children remained extremely groggy. While interviewing the children, officers soon discovered there was no family relationship between the woman and the two minors, ages 11 and eight."
One of the two children revealed to investigators that she and her brother were from southern Mexico and had traveled by bus to San Luis Rio, Colorado. There, Contreras-Lopez, a U.S. citizen from Arizona, picked them up. She said their mother was still in Mexico and they were traveling to live with their mother's boyfriend.
In other cases in recent weeks, the children have been caught up in multiple smuggling incidents with more than one relying on birth certificates for several unrelated children. "Sometimes we encounter criminal actions so horrendous they defy human decency," Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief of California’s El Centro sector told the Post.
An anonymous source told the outlet that smugglers will increasingly "recycle" children. “A few years ago when they were coming in en masse, we had to let family units in. People kept coming in and after a while we noticed the kids were the same, but the parents were different. They were recycling the kids,” the source said.
The two children smuggled by Contreras-Lopez were handed over to Mexican authorities, and the suspect was placed under arrest.
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