EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — A Mexican man was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison after he was convicted of drugging children and smuggling them into El Paso from Ciudad Juarez.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 35-year-old Manuel Valenzuela was sentenced for drugging kids ages five to 13 with marijuana candy to calm them as he and others would smuggle them into the country through El Paso, presenting U.S. documents to Customs and Border Protection officers, pretending to be the children’s parents.
The DOJ said that during one of these smuggling events, one of the kids had to be taken to a local hospital after suffering poisoning from the drug-laced candy…