GABRIELA RICO

An 8-year-old girl separated from her father by a smuggler near the U.S.-Mexico border was found safe after a full-scale search and rescue effort by U.S. Border Patrol agents.

On Wednesday, agents caught a group of illegal immigrants west of Douglas and took them to the detention center in the city for processing, said Charles Griffin, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, which oversees the Douglas area. There, one of the men asked if anyone had seen his daughter.

The unidentified father explained that his group was split up by a smuggler to avoid agents.

After finding that the child was not at the detention center, agents from the Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue Team, an agency helicopter, the agency's Horse Patrol Unit and a dog and handler were sent to the area where the father's group was found, Griffin said.

The dog followed fresh, northbound footprints of a child while the horse patrol searched farther ahead and found a second group of immigrants. The girl was with that group.

"The agents who participated in this search and rescue operation did an outstanding job in coordinating their efforts in locating the missing girl," said Carl McClafferty, deputy chief patrol agent of the Tucson sector.

He added: "The father and daughter were happily reunited despite the despicable methods of criminal alien smugglers that could have devastated yet another family."

Information about the father's and daughter's country of origin and what will happen to them next was not available last night.