A convicted sex offender from Alaska is accused of paying human smugglers $5,000 to obtain a Honduran mother and her young daughter, intending to claim the child as an unaccompanied minor sponsor after she crossed the Rio Grande into Texas, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Breitbart Texas.
According to the criminal complaint based on an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a registered sex offender from Alaska is alleged to have paid human smugglers $5,000 to deliver a Honduran mother and her daughter to him. According to HSI, the suspect planned to sponsor the child after she successfully crossed the Rio Grande into Texas as an unaccompanied minor.
Prosecutors identified the sex offender as 43-year-old Douglas Price of Chugiak, Alaska. The investigation began on January 16, after the Honduran girl crossed the Rio Grande near Hidalgo, Texas. HSI special agents interviewed the child who crossed the border alone in hopes of securing release into the United States while she was being detained at an immigration detention facility in McAllen.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas
According to the criminal complaint, the girl told investigators that her mother knew Price and planned to meet him in Alaska. The girl alleged Price planned to sponsor her release from custody by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
ORR is responsible for the processing and temporary detention of unaccompanied illegal alien children and investigating and approving or disapproving sponsors who agree to assume custody of the minor aliens as they await removal proceedings. According to the complaint, investigators learned Price was a convicted sex offender from Alaska and, through a review of phone records, had allegedly paid human smugglers at least $5,000 for the delivery of the young girl and her mother to him.
HSI agents were able to interview the child’s mother, who told authorities she had known Price for approximately four years after meeting him while the pair worked in the home remodeling business and became friends, the criminal complaint revealed. The child’s mother told HSI agents she had also been Price’s housekeeper and had babysat his children.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas
The complaint contains images of phone screenshots documenting the communications with the child’s mother and indicates Price, who identified himself as “Black Bear 9899,” had completed a $5,000 online financial transaction to allegedly pay human smugglers for bringing in the mother and her daughter. A cross-reference of the mother’s phone records shows the transfer was completed, according to the criminal complaint.
According to information published by the Alaska Department of Public Safety, Price was convicted of attempted sexual abuse in the first degree. Breitbart Texas confirmed the registrationand his 2020 conviction in the Deschutes County Circuit Court in Alaska. The sexual abuse was reported in 2018, the Alaska State Registry reports.
Price faces charges of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, a felony under 8 U.S.C. 1324. If convicted, Price faces up to 10 years in prison.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X @RandyClarkBBTX.
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