Boy, 11, Believed To Be Victim Of Human Traffickers Located In Mexico
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Major Crimes Bureau said on Thursday that they have located a missing 11-year-old boy believed to be the victim of human traffickers and an extortion attempt made against the child's mother.
The boy was found in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico, authorities said.
On May 10, 2014, at about 1:00 a.m., detectives Mejia and Lugo met with Blanca Hernandez, mother of the 11 year-old, at the Compton Sheriff's Station.
Hernandez told them she had made arrangements for a human smuggler to bring her son from El Salvador to the United States. She last spoke to the alleged smuggler and her son, by telephone, on April 28th.
During that call, the man told Hernandez he would deliver her son on May 1. Hernandez told police that May 1 passed with no word from the smuggler or her son.
On Wednesday, Hernandez said she finally heard from the man who told her that he and her son were being detained in Chiapas, Mexico and that he was being deported to Honduras.
When Mexican Authorities would not confirm if her son was being detained, Hernandez telephoned the Consulate General of El Salvador and the local media in Los Angeles, seeking assistance in finding her son.
Hernandez began receiving additional telephone calls from another alleged smuggler who told her that her son was near Houston, Texas. The boy's mother asked to speak to her child but the man refused. Unaware of her son's whereabouts, Ms. Hernandez again contacted the Compton Sheriff's Station.
Detectives from LASD Major Crimes Bureau contacted Hernandez and told her they located her child in Mexico.
