LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KRQE) – Two men have been arrested after being accused of smuggling children across the border. New Mexico State Police report that on May 29, an officer pulled over an SUV on I-25 near Las Cruces after noticing passengers in the back seat were not wearing seatbelts.
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During the stop the officer found 11 undocumented immigrants inside the vehicle along with a 5-year-old and 11-year-old girl. Police say the children’s mother lives in Mississippi and paid 23-year-old Antonio Guerra Garcia and 40-year-old Saul Rojas Villa to drive the girls across the border. After entering the United States, Garcia and Villa were supposed to let the children turn themselves in to Border Patrol in El Paso. However, investigators say the men didn’t allow the girls to leave and kept driving north into New Mexico.
Garcia and Villa were booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center. Both men are charged with kidnapping and child abuse. The children were turned over to Border Patrol with plans to be reunited with their mother.
