Denison woman arrested for smuggling children
<p>BY JONATHAN CANNON
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<p>HERALD DEMOCRAT
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<p>A Denison woman was arrested over the weekend on federal alien smuggling charges in South Texas at the border. 
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<p>Madeline De Los Angeles Colondres, 32, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Hidalgo/Reynosa International Bridge, when questioning revealed that the two minor girls, ages 13 and 15, she was traveling with were Mexican citizens, according to a criminal complaint filed against Colondres in U.S. District Court.
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<p>During initial questioning, Colondres said the girls were her nieces. But when she was sent to secondary question for "possible false claim to U.S. citizenship of the nieces," Colondres admitted the U.S. birth certificates she presented for the girls were fake, according to the document.
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<p>Colondres said she didn't even know the girls' real names and had met them at the airport in Merida, Mexico with their grandparents, according to the complaint. 
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<p>Colondres admitted that she was given the certificates by the girls' father, Luis Castillo, who had asked her to bring the girls to Denison, the court documents state.
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<p>The girls were returned to Mexico and Colondres is being held by the U.S. Marshal Service awaiting a detention hearing Thursday.</p>