Mexican national sentenced after smuggling children into US with THC-laced candy to keep them sedated

A 35-year-old Mexican national has been sentenced to five years in federal prison after admitting to participating in a child smuggling operation that brought unaccompanied migrant children into the United States, at times using THC-laced candy to sedate children as young as five years old during the journey.

According to the Department of Justice, Manuel Valenzuela was sentenced after pleading guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, three counts of bringing illegal aliens into the United States for financial gain, and one count of aiding and abetting.

Federal prosecutors said Valenzuela was part of an alien smuggling organization that illegally transported unaccompanied children between the ages of five and 13 from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, into the United States.

Court records state that smugglers would cross through ports of entry by presenting fraudulent or borrowed US identity documents, falsely claiming the documents belonged to the children and that the smugglers were their parents.

After entering the United States, the children were transported to El Paso, Texas.

According to prosecutors, the smugglers sometimes gave the children candy infused with THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, to keep them sedated during the crossings. During one smuggling attempt, one child became ill and was taken to a local hospital, where doctors diagnosed the child with THC poisoning.

Federal agents recovered THC gummies during an inspection at the port of entry. The Justice Department also released surveillance images showing Valenzuela entering the United States shortly before one of the attempted child smuggling operations.

"Needing to sedate children with THC under the guise of giving them candy shows just how heinous crimes like this are," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

"Smuggling unaccompanied children into the country, pretending to be their parents, and then lying to US immigration officials shows the lengths to which criminals like this will go to smuggle children across our borders," Duva added. "The Criminal Division and our law enforcement partners will put an end to this conduct. Protecting children and keeping our borders safe go hand-in-hand."

US Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas said authorities would continue pursuing organizations involved in child smuggling. "We fight every day in the Western District of Texas to ensure that the people and organizations responsible for heinous crimes like this are brought to justice," Simmons said. "Criminal organizations like this one would be well advised to think twice before engaging in this type of crime. Our message to them is this: we will find you, we will secure a conviction, and we will ensure you are removed from society for as long as possible."

Ryan G. McRae, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) El Paso, called the scheme "reprehensible and cruel."

"Using THC-infused candy to facilitate the smuggling of children across the border into the United States is reprehensible and cruel and puts vulnerable minors at serious risk," McRae said. "HSI will relentlessly pursue transnational criminal organizations responsible for these heinous tactics and bring them to justice."

The investigation was led by HSI El Paso and the US Border Patrol, with assistance from HSI's Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, DC, and Customs and Border Protection's National Targeting Center International Interdiction Task Force.