Texas DPS Arrests Man Allegedly Smuggling 5-Year-Old Girl into US
A man, identified as Roman Ibarra Rojo of Mexico, was arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) after allegedly smuggling a 5-year-old girl into the United States from Mexico.
According to DPS, troopers received information that a man was captured by border surveillance carrying a child across the Rio Grande. The troopers stopped a Dodge pickup truck in Del Rio, Texas, and upon investigation, learned that the 5-year-old girl was from Mexico and had just been smuggled into the US.
The troopers also matched the girl’s image in surveillance footage to the girl in the pickup truck. The girl’s mother, Dolores Lopez, was also in the truck at the time of the traffic stop and told the troopers she had paid $8,000 to a smuggling organization to smuggle her daughter into the US.
Rojo confessed that he was going to be paid $1,000 to smuggle the 5-year-old girl into the US and had previously been arrested in 2022 for smuggling.
Lopez was referred to the US Border Patrol and may face charges for endangering her child. It will be up to the district attorney to decide whether to prosecute.
The arrest highlights the continued issue of human smuggling across the US-Mexico border, with many using social media and online services to coordinate illegal activities.
