Four people are facing charges in a shocking child-smuggling case out of El Paso, Texas.

Four individuals are accused of illegally transporting unaccompanied children, aged between five and 13, from Juárez, Mexico, into the United States by pretending to be the children’s parents at Border Patrol checkpoints and giving them marijuana gummies to sedate them.

Among the accused are Mexican nationals Susana Guadian and Daniel Guadian, their U.S. citizen daughter, Dianne Guadian, and Manuel Valenzuela, a legal U.S. resident living in El Paso. They face charges in the Western District of Texas for conspiracy to transport aliens and bringing them to the U.S. for profit. Efforts are underway to extradite the Mexican nationals to the U.S. for trial, as stated by Jason Stevens, the Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) El Paso.

“They would have the drivers pose as their parents and provide U.S. documents, falsely claiming that the documents belong to those children that were being smuggled,” Stevens explained.

Four suspects are charged with smuggling migrant children over the border in El Paso, Texas. (Department of Justice)

Proof-of-life pictures of some of the children were found on the suspects’ phones.

Stevens says the parents trusted the smugglers to deliver their children to family members in the U.S., despite the significant risks. 

“These children are nothing more than currency to the criminals,” Stevens added. “Our aim is to intercept and prevent this before they reach here, as there are cases where children are found in stash houses, or families are extorted with children being held, which we sometimes hear about from local departments.”

Earlier this month, Fox News received exclusive access to a team established within the Office of Refugee Resettlement during the Trump administration to track down tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who vanished into the system under the Biden administration.

“While we understand the desire to come to the United States for a better life, there is a legal process to follow,” Stevens stated. “That is the process we obviously recommend, and that funds be directed towards it. With illegal operations, they lose control over the environment and people involved in smuggling operations.”