Texas newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on a terrifying incident of three adults conspiring to smuggle a 9-year-old boy from Mexico to Texas in order to be sold. Officials said Elida Moreno, 26, a U.S. citizen living in Piedras Negras, Mexico was paid $1,700 to use her son’s birth certificate to smuggle in the boy who was believed to have been kidnapped.
Moreno took the boy, under her son’s identity, to enter the U.S. through Eagle Pass, Texas. Once they crossed the border they stayed in a hotel before taking a shuttle to San Antonio the next day. When in San Antonio she was instructed to meet a 26-year-old Mexican citizen, Nery Dominguez and hand over the boy in exchange for $2,500.
According to the Star-Telegram, “at some point, the friend’s neighbor” who originally asked Moreno to smuggle the boy, told her “not to hand over the boy causing ‘a struggle between Moreno and [Dominguez],’ officials say. San Antonio Police Department showed up at the scene and arrested Dominguez.”
Moreno was then instructed to deliver the child to a 65-year-old man, Victor Monsivais at a truck stop. Fortunately, “following a sting orchestrated by Homeland Security Investigations, officials intercepted the boy and Monsivais in a grocery store parking lot in Ssan Antonio Wednesday morning.” Moreno, Dominguez and Monsivais all face conspiracy charges. Moreno faces an additional charge of “bringing an illegal alien into the U.S. for profit” and “making a false statement to a federal official upon conviction.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is asking that any suspicious activity be called into the ICE Tip Line at: 1-866-DHS-2-ICE
