“They exploit these needs by offering those items and then calling in debts,” Leeberg-Melton said. “They’re able to exploit them for sex or for labor.”
She explained that traffickers often prey on children facing instability — those without secure housing, family, or support — offering help before coercing them into forced sex or labor.
She added that traffickers are also “early adopters of new technology to recruit and control victims. Web-based technology allows then to “connect with victims and buyers far beyond their local area.”
Related Human Trafficking Case Near Border
In a related September case, four individuals were arrested for smuggling unaccompanied children from Juárez, Mexico, into the U.S. using marijuana gummies to sedate them. The suspects — Susana and Daniel Guadian, their daughter Dianne Guadian, and Manuel Valenzuela — allegedly posed as the children’s parents to pass Border Patrol checkpoints.
“They would have the drivers pose as their parents and provide U.S. documents falsely claiming that they belonged to the children,” said Jason Stevens, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) El Paso.
El Paso smuggling ring used marijuana gummies to sedate children, 4 charged | Fox News
