ICE: Woman Arrested For Attempting To Smuggle Drugged Child Across Southern Border With Fake Birth Certificate

A United States lawful permanent resident was taken into custody after allegedly trying to bring a sedated child into the country using a falsified birth certificate at the Southern Border, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On Wednesday, Mexican national Gloria Lopez-Corona, 24, was arrested after trying to cross into the U.S. with a five-year-old boy at the San Luis port of entry in Arizona. She presented a birth certificate that was found to belong to a different child, as it listed the age of a two-year-old.

Authorities identified the child as an unaccompanied minor from Mexico who had been drugged. The boy had ingested melatonin gummies and appeared drowsy and confused. Homeland Security Investigations confiscated items suspected of being used to sedate the child.

Lopez-Corona eventually confessed that she was not the boy’s mother and acknowledged the birth certificate was fraudulent. She stated she had a two-year-old child of her own living in Mexico. 

Immigration officials were able to locate the biological mother of the drugged child, Reyna Cecilia Hernandez Reyes.

Lopez-Corona asserted that she was coerced into smuggling the child into the U.S. by someone who had threatened her family, and that she did not alert authorities because “she did not trust the police in Mexico,” according to the New York Post. 

She then stated that she was directed to drive to a spot where an unidentified person placed the child in a car seat in her vehicle. Lopez-Corona said she was offered $1,500 to make the trip but declined the payment.

At one point, the boy told officials “that he was given gummies by his mother,” according to the outlet.

Reyes, a citizen of Mexico, admitted that she handed her child over to an unknown woman to have him smuggled into the U.S. Reyes, who later regained custody of her son, was charged in relation to the smuggling attempt.

The incident was to transport the child to Reyes’ husband in Los Angeles, according to the New York Post. The man had illegally entered the U.S. three years prior after having been deported three times previously.

Lopez-Corona, apprehended by Homeland Security Investigations, is facing charges of Alien Smuggling.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News that President Donald Trump “will protect children and stop traffickers and smugglers.”

“This depraved individual drugged an innocent child and trafficked them into our country,” Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News. “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, DHS will protect children and stop the traffickers and smugglers that exploit children.”

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