A U.S. lawful permanent resident was arrested on Wednesday after she allegedly attempted to smuggle a drugged child into the country through the Southern Border using a fake birth certificate, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Gloria Lopez-Corona, 24, from Mexico, attempted to enter the U.S. with a five-year-old boy through the San Luis port of entry in Arizona, where she presented a birth certificate that was revealed to be for a different child based on the age, as the birth certificate was for a two-year-old.
The child was determined to be an unaccompanied child from Mexico who was sedated. The child had been given melatonin gummies and was sleepy and disoriented. Homeland Security Investigations seized the items believed to have been used to drug the child.
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Lopez-Corona later admitted she was not the child’s mother and that the birth certificate was fake. Lopez-Corona said she was the mother to a two-year-old back home in Mexico. Immigration officials found the drugged five-year-old child’s mother, Reyna Cecilia Hernandez Reyes.
Lopez-Corona claimed she was forced to smuggle the child into the U.S. by a person who threatened her family and that she did not contact police because “she did not trust the police in Mexico,” according to the New York Post. She said she was told to drive to a location where the child was placed into a car seat in her back seat by an unnamed individual. The woman said she was offered $1,500 to transport the child but turned the money down.
The child at one point told agents “that he was given gummies by his mother,” according to the outlet.
Reyes, a Mexican citizen, admitted to giving her child to an unknown woman to be smuggled into the U.S. Reyes, who the child was returned to, was charged in connection with the attempted smuggling.
The plan was to have the child taken to Reyes’ husband in Los Angeles, according to the New York Post. The man was smuggled into the country three years ago. Federal agents later found that he was deported three times before his last entry.
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Lopez-Corona, who was arrested by Homeland Security Investigations, faces charges for Alien Smuggling.
“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.”
Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
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