Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers arrested a man near Del Rio, Texas, on Friday for allegedly smuggling a 5-year-old girl into the U.S. from Mexico.
According to Texas DPS, a trooper stopped a Dodge pickup truck in Del Rio after receiving a tip that a man had been caught by border surveillance carrying a child across the Rio Grande.
Lt. Chris Olivarez, a spokesperson for Texas DPS, told Fox News that the 5-year-old girl, who was carried across the border, was placed into another smuggler’s vehicle and driven to a hotel.
Troopers monitored the pickup truck until they pulled it over for a traffic stop.
During the stop, they discovered the 5-year-old girl was from Mexico and had just been smuggled into the U.S. The trooper also recognized the girl from the surveillance footage and identified her by the bow she was wearing, which appeared in both the footage and the truck.
The girl’s mother, Dolores Lopez, was in the truck during the stop. Texas DPS said she is a temporary resident of North Carolina and originally from Mexico.
Lopez told troopers that she found a smuggling organization online and paid $8,000 to have her daughter smuggled into the U.S.
Troopers arrested the smuggler, Roman Ibarra Rojo, a Mexican national. Rojo was charged with smuggling a person under 18 years old.
Texas DPS reported that Rojo admitted he was set to receive $1,000 for smuggling the girl into the U.S. Olivarez also mentioned that Rojo had been arrested in 2022 for similar charges.
Lopez and her daughter were referred to U.S. Border Patrol, who recommended charging the mother with child endangerment. It will be up to the district attorney to decide whether to pursue charges.
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