MEXICAN NATIONAL SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR DRUGGING AND SMUGGLING UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHILDREN INTO THE UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON, July 1 -- The U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division issued the following news release:

A Mexican national was sentenced today to five years in prison for smuggling children into the United States from Mexico.

According to court documents, Manuel Valenzuela, 35, and other members of an alien smuggling organization brought unaccompanied alien children between the ages of five and 13 illegally into the United States from Juarez, Mexico, sometimes using candy laced with THC to sedate them during smuggling events. The drivers and their co-conspirators would then present U.S. documents to inspecting officers falsely claiming the documents belonged to the children, and that they were the parents of the children. Once inside ...