Woman arrested on alien smuggling charges at Hidalgo bridge

HIDALGO — Customs officers arrested a woman on federal alien smuggling charges on Saturday.

Madeline De Los Angeles Colondres, 32, was headed north at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge on Saturday with two girls, ages 11 and 15, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection statement.

Colondres presented birth certificates for the two children and said they were U.S. citizens, officers said.

Officers referred the trio to secondary inspection, where they found that the two children were not U.S. citizens, but natives of Quintana Roo state, located on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.

Colondres, of Denison, Texas, was arrested on federal alien smuggling charges. The two children were returned to Mexico.