Convicted Child Molester Arrested after Crossing Texas Border

Border Patrol agents in the Laredo Sector arrested a previously deported sex offender after he attempted to illegally re-enter the U.S.

The agents observed a man crossing the border in the River Hill subdivision of Laredo. The subdivision is located south of Laredo on the edge of the Rio Grande River. Human smugglers frequently use this area to move their human cargo across the river allowing them to blend into the subdivision.

Agents arrested the man as he exited the river and took him to the Laredo Border Patrol Station for processing. The agents identified the man as 35-year-old Paulino Vazquez-Vazquez. A background check on the Mexican national revealed a prior conviction for a sexual offense against a child, according to information obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) by Breitbart Texas.

Court records show the Angier Police Department in Harnett County, North Carolina, arrested Vasquez in 2011. A court convicted him on charges of indecent liberties with a child and sentenced him to between 13 and 16 months in jail.

Immigration officials removed Vasquez from the U.S. following the completion of his term.

The criminal alien now faces a new felony charge of illegal re-entry after being removed as a sex offender, officials stated.

“Preventing this criminal from re-entering our country and committing another heinous crime is one of many examples that illustrate how the United States Border Patrol keeps our communities safe,” Laredo Sector Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Gabriel Acosta said in a written statement.

Two days earlier, CBP officers arrested a 42-year-old Mexican national crossing the Lincoln-Juarez International Bridge with a significant load of drugs. A K-9 officer alerted to the possible presence of drugs during a routine secondary inspection. A non-intrusive search of the 2008 Volvo commercial bus with scanners revealed 30 packages of what officers would later confirm to be $601,800 worth of cocaine. Officers found 30 packages of the drugs weighing 78 pounds.

Officers arrested the man and turned him over to Homeland Security Investigations for possible prosecution under drug smuggling laws. Authorities seized the bus and the drugs.