2 El Pasoans accused of smuggling child found abandoned in West El Paso

U.S. Customs arrested two El Pasoans in connection with a child smuggling case involving a baby girl abandoned on a roadside in West El Paso.

CBP officers arrested 23-year-old Brian Joshua Mayorga and 23-year-old Valerie Galindo, both U.S. citizens and El Paso residents.

El Paso police were called on May 15 to the 5000 block on Conley Drive after neighbors found a child sitting in child safety safety on the side of the road.

That same night, a woman wanted in Colorado was arrested at the Bridge of the Americas after border agents suspected she might be making a false U.S. claim after presenting a Colorado ID. Mayra Selene Lazos, 26, told the border officers she was the mother of a child smuggled into the U.S.

“CBP officers at the El Paso port of entry worked hard to use all the tools at their disposal and connect the clues to identify and then arrest the two people who smuggled this baby across the border,” Beverly Good, CBP El Paso port director, said in a news release.

CBP contacted the El Paso Police Department and Child Protective Services, and the agencies were eventually able to confirm the baby found in El Paso was the subject’s daughter.

Lazos helped identify the alleged smugglers, and border officers determined that the pair entered as pedestrians used a birth certificate to claim U.S. citizenship for the infant on May 15 at the Bridge of the Americas.

CBP officers arrested Mayorga on May 22 as he as he drove from Mexico to the U.S. Galindo was also driving into the U.S. on May 24 when she was arrested. She was riding with a man and her infant daughter, who was turned over to one of her relatives.

Both Galindo and Mayorga face alien smuggling charges.

Police are still investigating how the child ended up alone in West El Paso.