Valley man claims he was 'forced' to smuggle children

A Rio Grande Valley man behind bars on child smuggling charges claims he was ‘forced’ to do so by people in Mexico.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers arrested 31-year-old Maximiliano Martinez-Castillo on human smuggling charges on Monday.

The Pharr man walked up to the pedestrian lanes of Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge with a 6-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl.

Martinez-Castillo allegedly showed Weslaco birth certificates for both children, claimed that they were his nephew and niece and said they had gone to see family and a doctor in Reynosa.

But customs officers learned that the children were actually illegal immigrants from Guatemala.
Martinez-Castillo claimed that he was walking to the bridge when unknown people forced him to take the children with him.

The Pharr man appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby in McAllen on Tuesday.
Martinez-Castillo claimed to be a United States citizen and had a Pharr birth certificate and Texas identification card under another name.

But court records show that he’s a Mexican national who had been held in a witness in a old federal case but was previously deported back in June 2010.

Judge Ormsby denied bond for Martinez-Castillo until a Friday morning hearing.

Valley Central