Laredo woman admits role in Mexico-US child smuggling ring; gummies used to sedate girl

A Laredo, Texas, woman pleaded guilty to smuggling a young child into the United States for financial gain, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Alamdar S. Hamdani announced Friday.

At least one child was sedated with gummies in order to smuggle her into the country, a news release said.

Authorities said that from August 2023 to September 2023, Vanessa Valadez, 23, and other family members operated a child smuggling ring that brought young undocumented migrant children from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, into the United States. All the children were younger than 5 years old.

U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo will sentence her on Jan. 8. She faces up to 10 years in prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.

"This smuggling case ranks among the most chilling we've ever seen — involving the systematic trade of transporting young children to unknown final destinations," Hamdani said in the news release. "Let this prosecution serve as a stark warning to all those parents who might consider entrusting a precious child to the care of a criminal organization bent on making money by smuggling vulnerable children — your child could be sedated or drugged ... or worse."

Officials said that on the night of Sept. 19, 2023, members of the ring took a young girl from a stash house the organization ran and smuggled her across the border.

They delivered the girl to Valadez in downtown Laredo, then co-conspirators took the girl further into the United States and left her with unknown people, the news release said.

On Sept. 21, 2023, ring members tried to smuggle another girl, but law enforcement stopped the attempt after a routine border inspection at the Juárez Lincoln Bridge in Laredo.

Authorities said the smugglers had sedated the girl with melatonin gummies and used an unlawfully obtained birth certificate to trick authorities into thinking she was a family member of the smugglers.

One of the smugglers told authorities that the ring had tried to smuggle at least four girls into the United States. Three of the girls remain unidentified and their whereabouts still are unknown, authorities said. They again used birth certificates of U.S. children in a ruse to pose as a family at ports of entry into the United States.

According to the news release, members of the smuggling ring used melatonin gummies to sedate at least one child to smuggle her.

Investigators found one of the co-conspirators sent a text message and an image showing an unconscious child, captioned, "La noquiamos con unas gomitas," which in English means, "We knocked her out with some gummies."

Co-conspirators Ana Laura Bryand, 47, of Dallas; her niece, Kayla Marie Bryand, 20, of Laredo; Jose Eduardo Bryand, 43, of Laredo; Nancy Guadalupe Bryand, 44, of Laredo; and Lizeth Esmeralda Bryand Arredondo, 32, of Mexico, previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the conspiracy, the news release said.

Customs and Border Protection's Office of Field Operations and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case with help from the Border Patrol, the Laredo Police Department, the Department of Health and Human Services – Office of the Inspector General and the FBI.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Terence A. Check Jr. is prosecuting the case, with help from Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Makens.