The children were between 5 and 13 years old. Federal prosecutors say they were being moved from Juárez, Mexico, into the United States by adults pretending to be their parents.
When three of those children approached the border in October 2024, investigators say Susana Guadian had already coached them on the false names they were supposed to use.
Then came the gummies.
Investigators allege Guadian gave three children THC gummies in Juárez to sedate them before they crossed the border. One child later told emergency personnel that he hadn't eaten his gummies and had thrown them on the floor. Customs and Border Protection officers recovered them and obtained a positive test for cannabis.
The other two children weren't as fortunate. Emergency medical personnel evaluated all three, and two were taken to a hospital. The complaint says they were diagnosed with ingestion of an unknown drug and marijuana poisoning.
Think about those ages.
These weren't adults who understood the risks they were taking. They were children as young as 5, allegedly given a drug so they could be moved across an international border without creating problems for the adults making money from them.
Mexican nationals Susana and Daniel Guadian are now in the United States to face the charges. The Justice Department announced Tuesday that the couple had been extradited from Mexico and arraigned in the Western District of Texas. Prosecutors say they were part of an organization that smuggled unaccompanied children from Juárez between May and October 2024.
From the DOJ:
“These defendants are charged with smuggling multiple children across the southern border. The allegations include that they risked the safety of children by giving them THC-laced gummies to sedate them while smuggling them from Mexico into the United States to avoid the children answering questions from border law enforcement,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Protecting kids from smugglers, who will stop at nothing to exploit them, will always be one of the Department’s highest priorities.”
“Having Susana and Daniel Guadian in custody on this side of the border one year after they were indicted is a major development in a case that highlights the dangerous tactics that human smugglers employ when smuggling children,” said U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas. “Like their co-defendants before them, these two will be aggressively prosecuted in federal court and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
The operation allegedly depended on an ugly bit of theater. Susana and Daniel Guadian recruited drivers, prosecutors say, who transported children to ports of entry. Drivers used U.S. documents belonging to other children and falsely claimed the children sitting beside them were their own.
The money wasn't complicated; drivers received about $900 for each child successfully brought into the United States. Once across, prosecutors say the children were taken to El Paso, where other members of the organization picked them up and paid the drivers.
Two other defendants have already reached entirely different stages of the criminal process. Manuel Valenzuela pleaded guilty to conspiracy and smuggling charges and was sentenced July 1 to five years in federal prison. Dianne Guadian pleaded guilty July 28 to four counts of aiding and abetting bringing unauthorized aliens into the country for profit.
The allegations against Susan and Daniel Guadian remain to be resolved in court. The records already produced in the investigation, however, offer a disturbing look at how the alleged operation worked and what happened when Border Patrol and CBP officers became suspicious.
Children were given false identities, adults allegedly posed as their parents, and money changed hands for every successful crossing. Three children were allegedly handed THC gummies before one attempted crossing, and two wound up at a hospital.
Border debates usually become arguments about numbers, policy, detention space, asylum rules, and politics. Cases like this put human beings back into the discussion.
A 5-year-old doesn't understand immigration policy. A child being handed a gummy doesn't know the dosage, the risk, or why an adult wants him sleepy before meeting a federal officer.
He only knows an adult told him to eat the candy, and somebody was allegedly waiting to collect $900 if the plan worked.
I pray there's a special room in hell for those people who "allegedly" drugged and trafficked children.