EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A federal grand jury in El Paso has indicted two U.S. moms in connection to a smuggling attempt involving three foreign minors.
Wednesday’s indictment charges Janette Jauregui and Stephanie Chantal Diaz with conspiracy and transportation of illegal aliens stemming from their October 17 arrest at El Paso’s Bridge of the Americas port of entry.
The incident prompted U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to call an ambulance after learning that a smuggler told the children to ingest marijuana gummies prior to placing them inside the black Nissan Sentra driven by their “fake” moms.
Three children were diagnosed with marijuana poisoning at an El Paso hospital; they were treated and released to federal custody. CBP recovered an undigested piece of gummy from the children, which tested positive for cannabis, records show.
According to a complaint affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Jauregui and Diaz drove up to the port of entry with four children they represented as their own. The women identified themselves as U.S. citizens and presented Texas birth certificates for the minors.
A CBP officer asked Jauregui’s “son” what school he went to, but the child was unable to provide an answer. The officer asked further questions, but Jauregui allegedly started providing the answers for the boy only identified in records as M.J.
The vehicle and its occupants were sent to a secondary inspection area, where border officers questioned Diaz if the other three children were hers. Records show only one of the minors was determined to be a U.S. citizen.
In an interview with investigators, Jauregui allegedly said M.J. was not hers and she used her son’s birth certificate to smuggle him into the U.S. She allegedly told authorities this is the third time she smuggles foreign children into the country, getting paid $900 for each by a smuggler in Juarez, Mexico.
Diaz eventually gave investigators a similar account for two of the three children under her care. She allegedly admitted to previously smuggling seven children into the country, court records show.
She told investigators she picked up the minors at the Juarez home of a woman named “Susana.” It was Susana who coached the children on what to say when asked for their names at the port of entry and gave them the gummies to sedate them, Diaz told investigators.
Another conspirator, only identified as “Diana,” was supposed to pick up the foreign minors from Jauregui and Diaz at a location to be provided once the U.S. women cleared the port of entry.
Jauregui and Diaz are scheduled to be arraigned on November 21 before U.S. Magistrate Anne T. Berton in an El Paso federal courtroom.
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