Missing Arizona teen found in Mexico; kidnappers arrested
More than a week after she was reported missing, an Arizona teen was found across the border.
The 15-year-old was visiting relatives in Nipomo, California, when she went missing around 1 a.m. on July 1, according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office.
During the investigation, officials discovered the teen had been persuaded to run away to Mexico with 38-year-old Daniel Navarro, who was posing as a teenager on Instagram, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
They were driven from Nipomo to Tijuana, Mexico, the night before the teen's scheduled quinceañera, by Julie Le, 20, who had also befriended her over social media. Both Navarro and Le are California residents.
Previous coverage: 15-year-old girl from Arizona goes missing in California; search underway
This was not an isolated incident, the Department of Justice said. Navarro also attempted to persuade one of the teen's relatives to run away and previously solicited sexual images from other teenage girls via social media.
On July 10, Navarro and Le were arrested as they entered the U.S. from Mexico. The 15-year-old was then rescued from a residence in Tijuana by Mexican authorities the next morning. She has since been reunited with her family, according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office.
The Republic is not naming the teen because she is a minor.
The Sheriff's Office was assisted in the case by Homeland Security agents, the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The U.S. Department of Justice intends to prosecute the case in federal court and said in the news release it will pursue a charge of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity with a minor, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison up to life without parole.
Republic reporter Angela Cordoba Perez contributed to this article.
Reach criminal justice reporter Gloria Rebecca Gomez at grgomez@gannett.com or on Twitter @glorihuh.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Missing Arizona teenager found in Mexico
