Girl knocked out with gummies, others missing in ‘chilling’ smuggling case, feds say
A Texas woman was sentenced to prison after officials said she tried to smuggle a young girl into the United States across the Texas border.
Vanessa Valadez, 23, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport into the United States an undocumented alien, according to court records. She was sentenced to a year and a half in prison.
The sentencing stems from what officials called a “child smuggling ring,” according to a July 22 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
From August to September 2023, Valadez, along with multiple family members, brought young kids from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, into the United States illegally, officials said.
Each smuggled child was under 5 years old, according to prosecutors.
“This smuggling case ranks among the most chilling we’ve ever seen — involving the systematic trade of transporting young children to unknown final destinations,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a September 2024 news release.
On Sept. 19, 2023, a young girl was taken from a stash house that the smuggling ring operated out of, officials said. Co-conspirators smuggled the girl across the border to Laredo and delivered her to Valadez, prosecutors said.
Co-conspirators then took the girl further into the country and took her to unknown people, officials said.
Valadez’s attorney, Silverio Martinez, told McClatchy News his client admitted to her involvement, but she had good intentions.
“Families would come over illegally and eventually ask for their children to be brought over, one by one,” Martinez said. “That was her understanding.”
Martinez said the children were not being brought into the country for sex trafficking or any other violent intentions.
He said Valadez’s family members were the ones smuggling the children so when kids were brought around her, she would sometimes feed and care for them, but he said the “government overplayed her involvement.”
Two days after the girl was dropped off with Valadez, members of the ring tried to transport another young girl over the border but were caught during a routine border inspection, prosecutors said. In their attempt to bring the girl into the US, the members sedated her with melatonin gummies and obtained a fake birth certificate, officials said.
“One text message uncovered in the investigation showed an image depicting an unconscious child and a caption, ‘La noquiamos con unas gomitas,’ translated in English as ‘we knocked her out with some gummies,’” officials said.
Investigators discovered several other attempts were made to bring at least four girls into the country, prosecutors said. Three of those girls are still unidentified, and officials don’t know where they are, according to prosecutors.
Martinez said Valadez was only involved in the one incident and she took responsibility for it in court, admitting to her role. He said she had no part in sedating any children with gummies or any other substances.
Five other people in connection with the case previously pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to prison.
This story was originally published July 23, 2025 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Girl knocked out with gummies, others missing in ‘chilling’ smuggling case, feds say."
