Border Patrol agents have raised alarms about a disturbing trend involving minors as young as eight being drugged and smuggled into the United States by traffickers posing as family members.

According to a report from The New York Post, authorities have recently rescued children in two separate instances, including one where traffickers had falsified birth certificates for multiple minors to whom they were not related.

Sources within the Border Patrol indicate an increase in cases where smugglers present themselves as family units, leading to the “recycling” of children. A Border Patrol source stated, “A few years ago when they were coming in en masse, we had to let family units in. People kept coming in and after a while we noticed the kids were the same, but the parents were different. They were recycling the kids.” Another source expressed concern about the fate of these children, saying, “I hate thinking about it because there were thousands of kids and who knows where they all ended up.”

Authorities remain uncertain about what happens to these children once they are smuggled into the U.S. The report suggests that many may be at risk of exploitation for labor or trafficking.

Gregory Bovino, the chief of the Border Patrol in California’s El Centro sector, stated, “Sometimes we encounter criminal actions so horrendous they defy human decency.” He shared a case in which agents rescued a child at the California border who had been “heavily dosed with sleep aids to prevent him from talking.” The traffickers were found to have additional birth certificates for other minors.

On August 29, officers at the San Luis, Arizona port of entry arrested 28-year-old U.S. citizen Marlen Contreras-Lopez. She was discovered with two young children in her car, both allegedly under the influence of sleep aids, according to federal prosecutors.

Contreras-Lopez initially claimed to be related to the children and attempted to wake them when questioned by officers. However, when she exited the vehicle for further inspection, one child needed assistance walking while the other struggled to remain upright.

“The woman had difficulty waking the children. Officers observed that the children remained extremely groggy. While interviewing the children, officers soon discovered there was no family relationship between the woman and the two minors,” explained Diane J. Sabatino, Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations.

She noted that although the woman had legitimate birth certificates, they did not belong to the children. The minors reported they had been given sleep aids “in order to avoid detection.” One child mentioned that she and her brother had traveled from southern Mexico to the border town of San Luis Rio Colorado, where they were picked up by Contreras-Lopez, while their mother remained in Mexico, sending them to live with their mother’s boyfriend.