Child Smuggler Caught in the Act; Mother Also Detained

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) disrupted a child smuggling operation near the Texas border, resulting in the child’s rescue as well as the arrests of both the human smuggler and the mother who admitted to paying him.

This saga concluded on Friday, November 29, 2024, in Val Verde County. A surveillance camera showed the smuggler sprinting toward the Rio Grande in Mexico with a youngster, who was then unlawfully transported across the border to Texas.

A state trooper later stopped a pickup truck in Del Rio driven by a man dressed like the human smuggler seen on the surveillance video, a five-year-old girl (whose clothes also matched those seen on the surveillance camera), and a woman identifying herself as the child’s mother.

“The mother, Dolores Lopez, from Mexico, a temporary resident residing in North Carolina, was inside the Ram 1500. She stated that she located a smuggling organization via the Internet, which agreed to smuggle her daughter into the United States for $8,000.” – Lt. Chris Olivarez, Texas Department of Public Safety

“Troopers arrested and charged the smuggler, a permanent resident, Roman Ibarra Rojo, from Mexico, with smuggling of persons younger than 18 years of age. Rojo confessed that he was going to be paid $1,000 to smuggle the 5-year-old female child.” – Lt. Chris Olivarez, Texas Department of Public Safety

DPS officials apprehended the smuggler and are now facing state charges. The United States Border Patrol received the woman and child.

The child’s rescue and the arrest of her mother and human smuggler came one day after Texas DPS officers in Maverick County rescued a ten-year-old Salvadoran kid who was found screaming and alone in a rural area of Maverick County after being abandoned by human smugglers and left for dead.

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