Smuggler Swims Across River Carrying Tot Then Abandons Him

This is the shocking moment a people smuggler abandons a one-year-old boy to his fate a stone's throw from the Colorado River before returning to Mexico.

A surveillance camera caught the moment the smuggler emerges from the water with the tot in his arms and places him on the ground between two tall fences.

The smuggler then returns to the water and, moments later, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle arrives on the scene.

An officer can be seen getting out and collecting the toddler before an accident can happen.

The smuggler had swum across the river between San Luis Rio Colorado in Mexico's Sonora State and the Yuma Sector of Arizona State, USA, with the lad in his arms.

The incident took place on 20th March and officials revealed that the boy was from Guatemala.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said in a statement obtained by Newsflash on 24th March: "A one-year-old Guatemalan child was abandoned along the Colorado River Monday afternoon by a smuggler who took him across the border and then left him to fend for himself along the water's edge. Thanks to our agent's quick response, tragedy was averted!

He followed it up with a picture of the child safe with an agent.