Emanuel De La Costa-Valdiva, 32, of Mexico, was arrested Thanksgiving Day on suspicion of human trafficking, kidnapping and extortion, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Authorities suspect the girl's mother was trying to have her daughter smuggled into the country by a "coyote," as immigrant smugglers are known.
"Parents who contract with human smugglers should remember they are delivering their children into the hands of criminals, criminals who are all too willing to put a child's welfare at stake for their own personal gain," Joseph Macias of ICE said.
A chance encounter led to the arrest, the Orange County Register reported.
A CHP officer was parked at the Laguna Hills mall around 10 a.m. Thursday when a man and a woman approached him, sheriff's Lt. Mike Jansen said.
The couple explained they had been involved in human smuggling, and that the smuggler had their daughter. The couple had been paying off the smuggler for several weeks, Jansen said, but with the money continuing to roll in the accused smuggler held onto the girl and kept asking for more money.
ICE's Vincent Picard told the newspaper agents believe the kidnapping and hostage situation was a bait-and-switch on the girl's mother who was trying to cross into the United States illegally from Mexico with her daughter.
The woman apparently paid De La Costa-Valdiva to smuggle her daughter into the United States, while the mother crossed the border illegally, taking a different route, Picard said.
But instead of being reunited with her mother in California, De La Costa- Valdiva became a kidnapper, refusing to return the little girl, Picard said.
Joseph Macias, the assistant special agent in charge of the ICE investigations in Orange, said the situation was all too common. "Parents who contract with human smugglers should remember they are delivering their children into the hands of criminals, criminals who are often all too willing to put a child's welfare at stake for their own personal gain," Macias said.
Agents and deputies worked with the girl's mother to arrange another payoff with the accused smuggler, Jansen said. For hours, they waited and watched. Around 10 p.m. De La Costa-Valdiva showed up with the girl, and deputies moved in and arrested De La Costa-Valdiva.
Valdiva is being held without bail in Orange County Jail and expected in court Tuesday in Dept. CJ1 at the Central Jail, 550 N. Flower St., according to Orange County Jail records.
As Valdiva is being held on Federal chages as well as other charges there is no bail for him. If the bail information changes we will update the story.
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