CARTEL CRUELTY: Mexican Couple Extradited to Texas for Drugging Children in Border Smuggling Scheme

A husband and wife from Mexico stand accused in a U.S. federal court of running a human smuggling operation that would drug young children in order to get them across the border.

In recent days, the U.S. government worked with Mexico to secure the extradition of 51-year-old Susana Guadian and her husband, 51-year-old Daniel Guadian, from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. Federal authorities took them before a U.S. federal judge this week, who formally charged them with human smuggling conspiracy charges. Two other group members who were in the U.S. have already been found guilty. One is serving a five-year prison sentence, while the other awaits sentencing.

According to information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, the couple was part of a larger human smuggling organization, and their job was to recruit drivers to cross the children from Mexico into the United States. They paid drivers $900 per child they were able to cross.

The group would cross children ages 5-13 with one or two drivers who would provide U.S. documents belonging to someone else. The adults would then drive into Texas at a border crossing near El Paso, present the documents, and claim that the children were theirs.

The tactic called for the group to drive at night, when the children would be sleeping, so U.S. CBP officers wouldn’t wake them and ask questions. To keep the children asleep, the group would drug the children with various substances. In some of the trips, the group used marijuana infused gummies. In at least one case, a child became ill and had to be taken to a local hospital.

These incidents took place during the Biden Border Crisis, at a time when Border Patrol agents and CBP officers were stretched thin, processing and releasing thousands of illegal aliens per day. This frequently reduced the number of CBP officers available for inspections at ports of entry. By forcing the children to sleep during the crossings, the smugglers gambled on officers not taking the time to wake the children and interview them.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.