A six-month-old baby girl was rescued by a special operations team of Texas Rangers from the Rio Grande River after a smuggler threw the little girl out of a raft, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced on social media Tuesday.
In a Facebook post, the Texas DPS said the South Texas Special Operations Group, Texas Rangers Division assisted the U.S. Border Patrol in Roma, Texas, with the rescue of a 6-month-old female child who had been thrown out of a raft and into the river by human traffickers.
“This specialized group is a highly trained tactical team whose primary responsibility is to carry out specific missions, usually along the Texas-Mexico border region or wherever needed,” the post continued. “The team is designed to conduct both overt and extended covert operations in remote areas where conventional law enforcement cannot operate. The team’s focus is to gather intelligence, conduct interdiction, and disruption of criminal activity usually associated with drug cartels.”
The child was safely rescued and is now with her mother in U.S. Border Patrol custody, according to Valleycentral.com.
The website reports Texas DPS Lt. Christopher Olivarez said the mother and child had been waiting in Mexico since December to cross into the U.S. The mother reportedly paid the smugglers $3,500 to cross the river to enter the U.S. The mother and child attempted to cross the river in rafts, along with 67 adults and 150 children.
News of the rescue comes after the Border Patrol’s attempt to help a family of three earlier this month. A mother and her two children were found unresponsive on an island in the Rio Grande, according to thepostmillennial.com. The mother and the youngest child survived, but her 9-year-old died from drowning.