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US Mother Arrested for Attempted Child Smuggling

4 years 10 months 1 week ago Thursday, May 16 2019 May 16, 2019 May 16, 2019 4:08 PM May 16, 2019 in News - Local

MISSION – A Mission mother is accused of bringing someone into the country illegally on Wednesday at a Rio Grande Valley port-of-entry. 

The woman identified through court records as Daina Loper went before a federal judge Thursday.

She's accused of trying to bring a Mexican child she didn't know into the U.S. 

It happened when Loper crossed into Reynosa and used the pedestrian walkway at the Hidalgo port-of-entry to walk back with a five-year-old boy by her side.

According to the federal criminal complaint, Loper showed officers a city of Mission birth certificate to claim the child as her own.

The boy was unable to answer basic questions, so both were sent for further questioning.

That's when the story unraveled. 

Loper said she did not know the name of the child, who his parents were, and that she was forced to bring him over.

She told authorities she got involved after meeting a man who was an acquaintance she met in Reynosa aboard a taxi.

She used her own child's legitimate certificate to try to cross the unknown child.

She had plans to deliver him to someone at the What-a-Burger in Hidalgo.

That person was not the mother of the child; the mother was contacted by federal officers.

She lives in Louisiana and agreed to travel to the port-of-entry to be reunited with her son. 

Loper said she was going to be paid for her services, but claimed not to know the amount. 

This is not the first incident of its kind.

Back in June of 2014, CBP arrested five women for carrying out human smuggling attempts similar to this one.

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