Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers arrested a man near the border in Del Rio, Texas, on Friday for his alleged involvement in smuggling a 5-year-old girl into the U.S. from Mexico.
Texas DPS said a trooper stopped a Dodge pickup truck in Del Rio after receiving information that a man was captured 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 loaded into another smuggler’s vehicle and driven to a hotel.
Troopers kept an eye on the pickup truck until they eventually pulled the truck over and conducted a traffic stop.
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During the stop, troopers learned the 5-year-old girl was from Mexico and had just been smuggled into the U.S. The Trooper also matched the image of the girl in surveillance footage to the girl in the pickup truck.
While asking the girl questions in Spanish, he pointed out the youngster’s bow, which was also seen in the recorded footage.
The girl’s mother, Dolores Lopez, was also in the truck at the time of the traffic stop.
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Texas DPS said the mother is a temporary resident of North Carolina and is originally from Mexico.
Lopez told troopers she located a smuggling organization on the internet and agreed to have her daughter smuggled into the U.S. for $8,000.
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Troopers ultimately arrested the smuggler, who was identified as Roman Ibarra Rojo from Mexico. Rojo was charged with smuggling a person younger than 18 years old.
Texas DPS said Rojo confessed that he was going to be paid $1,000 to smuggle the 5-year-old girl into the U.S.
Olivarez said Rojo was previously arrested in 2022 for smuggling.
Lopez and her daughter were referred to the U.S. Border Patrol with the recommendation of charging the mother with endangering her child. It will be up to the district attorney to decide whether to prosecute the mother.
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