2 get prison in separate bids to smuggle children into U.S.
By Alexis Huicochea
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.12.2008
Two women were sentenced to federal prison Thursday for smuggling attempts, authorities said Friday.
Carlota Quijada-Quihuis, 48, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to smuggle six children into the United States from Mexico at a Nogales crossing, according to a news release.
The children ranged in age from 6 to 11 years old, and all presented border-crossing cards that did not belong to them, the release said.
On April 9, Quijada- Quihuis told an inspector that she was taking the children to a birthday party at a pizza restaurant in Nogales, Ariz., the release said.
During questioning, Quijada-Quihuis, of Nogales, Sonora, admitted that she was hired by a woman to smuggle the children into the country and take them to a restaurant for $1,200, the release said.
The children were turned over to the Mexican Consulate for return to Mexico.
In the second incident, Otelia Villarreal Larios, 50, of Chandler, was sentenced to more than two years in prison for conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants for profit.
She and her daughter, Leeann Ortiz, tried to smuggle three children, ages 6, 7 and 11, into the country Jan. 18, 2007, the release said.
Ortiz told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer that the children were her own and presented birth and baptismal certificates, as well as Social Security cards that belonged to her true children, the release said.
When questioned, Larios told an officer that she was the children's grandmother.
The officer questioned the children, who gave their real names and said they were heading to Phoenix to join their father and an older brother who had been living there illegally for some time, the release said.
They also said that their mother and a sister were at a motel in Nogales, Sonora, where the children were picked up by Ortiz earlier in the day.
The children told the officer that Ortiz told them to give different names when crossing into the country, the release said.
Ortiz was sentenced to 18 months in prison in June.
The children were turned over to the Mexican Department of Family Services and have been reunited with their family.
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