TIJUANA A three-year-old boy from San Diego County was found in Tijuana on Tuesday after his mother, who allegedly suffers from drug addiction, fled with him during a visit, according to the Baja California Preventive Police.
Alfredo Arenas, the international liaison for the state police, said the woman, identified as Lorena Lynn Whitesell, 40, and her son were found in a "drug house" in the downtown district.
According to information provided by the U.S. Marshall's Office to the state police, he said, the boy was taken away from his mother because of her drug addiction.
Whitesell abducted him during a visit in San Diego and fled to Tijuana, where state police agents located her, Arenas said.
"The operation to rescue the minor was carried out based on the investigation begun with information provided by U.S. authorities," Arenas said.
He added that the liaison office of the California Department of Justice corroborated that there was an arrest warrant for Whitesell for abduction.
The mother and son were turned over to U.S. authorities, he said.
No information was available as to when the boy, who was reportedly born in Chula Vista, was taken nor from where.
Late Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Sheriff's Department said in that the abduction was not a San Diego County case. And A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice had no information on the case.
