BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Birth certificates, food stamps, fake ID’s and even sexual services are all for sale in various Facebook pages from the Texas border.
With names like La Pulga Online (No Rules) La New Pulga Online, Las Milpas FB Estate Saale, and RGV Flea market the Facebook groups allow members to post various items for sale. While most of the items for sale in those groups deal with garage sales and so forth, various individuals have been advertising all sorts of government documents as well as other illicit activity. Xanax pills, marijuana, cocaine, human smuggling and other border illicit activity are all on sale in some of the Facebook groups.
In one of the most recent postings, a woman was selling a birth certificate and social security card for a girl born in 2010 in the border city of Brownsville. A local TV station named KRGV went to the address shown in the birth certificate to speak with the residents about the Facebook post. The child’s grandparents told the news crew that police detectives had gone by the house to see if they were in fact selling the document which they claimed not to. The relatives told the news crew that they had no idea how a copy of the girl’s birth certificate ended up being sold online.
Illegal items for sale on Facebook has been a disturbing trend that appears to be on the rise, saying enough is enough Erasmo Castro, a Texas border citizen journalist who has been consistently exposing the practice.
Castro routinely submits photos of the posts to Brownsville Police and other agencies in an effort to get them involved in the case. The practice has made the citizen journalist the target of many insults and threats that include lawsuits or “la sute” as he refers to them mocking their poor grammar.
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