A 19-year-old Guatemalan pregnant woman died of her injuries Tuesday after climbing and falling from part of the U.S. border wall near El Paso, Texas.

A woman, identified as Mirian Stephany Girón Luna, is said to have fallen more than 19 feet from a steel mesh border barrier Saturday, landing on her back according to Guatemalan and U.S. authorities. A man who was with Girón at the time of the fall and believed to be the father of the baby found Border Patrol agents who called for medical help.

Girón was quickly rushed to a local hospital where she was diagnosed with a cerebral hemorrhage, liver and kidney lacerations and a pelvic fracture. Doctors tried to perform numerous surgeries including an emergency C-section to save the woman and her child but were unsuccessful in their attempts. Girón was pronounced dead Tuesday. She was eight months pregnant.

In a statement released Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol blamed the tragedy on human smugglers who they believe carelessly left the woman and her partner to their own devices once they reached the border fence.

“Despite the best efforts of our Border Patrol agents and medical professionals, sadly more lives have perished at the hands of human smugglers,” CBP El Paso Sector Chief Gloria Chavez. “Someone in Mexico guided this 8-month pregnant woman from Guatemala to this section of the border and encouraged her and helped her climb the steel mesh border barrier. We will engage our law enforcement partners in Mexico to find those responsible for placing these lives in danger.”

U.S. Customs told CBS News that Girón had no record of trying to cross into the U.S. nor was she ever placed in the U.S.’s “Remain in Mexico” program, which requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their day in U.S. immigration court.

Tekandi Paniagua Flores, the Guatemalan consul in Del Rio, Texas told the AP that he spoke to Girón’s partner since her passing Tuesday.

“He said that if he had known that the risks were this high, he would not have done it,” Paniagua told the AP.

The consul said that he’s seen at least seven incidents in which Guatemalans had hurt themselves trying to climb border walls in 2020 alone. Crossing the U.S./Mexican border has been known to be a risky, and often lethal endeavor. Just last month, three women died of hypothermia after severe weather conditions thwarted their attempts to cross the border near San Diego.

Cover: A group of migrants wait to be stopped by the Border Patrol in the border wall in El Paso, Texas as seen from Ciudad Juarez, State of Chihuahua, Mexico on April 24, 2019. (Photo: HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Business is booming for the DIY “ghost gun” industry, with manufacturers reporting widespread backorders and shipping delays due to a “pandemic buying surge.”

Ghost guns are typically sold as kits online and marketed as an 80% complete firearm. But they evade federal regulation because they’re not classified as real firearms by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms — even if the finished product can look and function exactly like any other high-powered firearm you might buy in a store.

The apparent increased demand for ghost guns comes amid a spike in gun sales generally. Driven by fears over coronavirus and a looming economic recession, Americans have flocked to gun stores across the country to stock up on ammo or firearms.

“We feel that sales are up like its Black Friday.”

“This oughta be a time, historically, a time of year that guns don’t sell,” said Jerry Roberts, owner of Tennessee Arms Company, which manufactures firearm parts to federally licensed gun stores and sells ghost gun kits. “We feel that sales are up like its Black Friday.”

At least 16 companies that offer ghost gun kits have put out statements apologizing for shipping delays, which they attribute to “exceptionally heavy demand,” according to screenshots compiled by Everytown for Gun Safety and shared with VICE News.

“Sales are up because when people become concerned about their security and the example is buying groceries and toilet paper and such. These are just one of the items that shows people are concerned something is up,” said Roberts. “It’s mysterious, which makes it even more frightening… instead of learning the ways to properly wash your hands, people instead grab for a gun just in case.”

READ: China is making tons of PPE respirators, but U.S. hospitals can't buy them

Ghost gun kits were initially a niche hobby enjoyed by firearm enthusiasts — and some companies are marketing their wares as a fun project for people who are suddenly spending a lot more time at home due to social distancing.

ATF doesn’t currently classify ghost gun kits as firearms, which means buyers get to evade federal regulation, and the finished product doesn’t have a serial number. For this reason, they’ve also become popular among criminals. And they create a huge headache for investigators: according to the ATF, 30% of all guns recovered at crime scenes in California last year didn’t have serial numbers.

Ghost guns also appeal to those who harbor a distrust of government authorities. “Anti-government sentiment is a marketing tool for those manufacturers all the time,” said Nick Suplina from Everytown for Gun Safety. “They market the unserialized nature of the gun, they market the fact there will be no record of the sale anywhere.”

Joe Z, the general manager of Ghost Rifles in Daytona Beach, Florida, estimates that about 15% of customers seeking out “ghost gun kits” are of the anti-government persuasion.

“The only gun you truly own is the gun they don’t know about.”

“Since this all started spiraling out of control I’ve purchased, milled out and assembled two new AR15 ghost guns,” one person wrote on the image board site 4chan last week. “The only gun you truly own is the gun they don’t know about.”

So far, officials in six states — New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Washington, Massachusetts and New Mexico — have declared gun stores non-essential businesses, and ordered them to close down as part of a wider lockdown due to coronavirus. Three of those states, New York, New Jersey, and Washington, have state bans on ghost guns.

Los Angeles County Sheriff also ordered gun stores to close. Other users on 4chan urged readers to stock up on firearms or seek out ghost guns in the event that more states order gun stores to close down.

In states where gun stores are still open, some say that the increase in sales is being driven, in part by, by first time gun-owners. “We’re seeing a lot of people, particularly in suburban areas, who might have always been on the fence about guns, or maybe they never owned an AR-style firearm before,” said Joe Z, reflecting on his store’s uptick in sales generally. “The more society becomes different people tend to go from being on the fence about something to deciding their position.”

But as far as the DIY ghost-gun kits go, Joe Z estimates that about 80% of buyers already own firearms — pointing out that the process for assembling a DIY ghost gun isn’t actually that straightforward.

Cover: "Ghost guns" on display at the headquarters of the San Francisco Police Department in San Francisco in this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

A Trump-loving actor and self-proclaimed “genius entrepreneur” peddling a fake coronavirus cure has just become the first person to face federal coronavirus-related charges.

Keith Lawrence Middlebrook, 53, was arrested Wednesday night after trying to solicit investment in his fake COVID-19 treatment pills from an undercover FBI agent. Middlebrook falsely claimed the "remedy" he developed both cures and prevents the infection. He’d promised investors significant profits and said he’d already received backing from NBA legend Magic Johnson.

The FBI acted on a tip received March 13 from someone who Middlebrook allegedly tried to solicit for investment, according to the Washington Post. He’s now facing up to 20 years in prison on one count of attempted wire fraud.

Middlebrook has had a few small parts, mostly uncredited, in some high-profile movies, according to his IMDB page, including 2011’s “Moneyball” and 2010’s “Iron Man 2,” as well as episodes of “CSI” and “Justified.” Despite his few small roles, he’s amassed a large following on social media, with more than 2.4 million followers on Instagram.

Middlebrook has often used Instagram to praise President Trump and, more recently, to reveal what he considers the real coronavirus truth. Earlier this month, he posted a video to his Instagram downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic.

“Don’t listen to the negative news and the negative media,” he says in a video posted March 9. “There is last year alone, 61,000 deaths of the flu. The previous year, there were 80,000 deaths of the flu. I think the coronavirus is at 16? Trump’s already got it nipped in the bud. There’s already an antidote. People are getting up out of the hospital and walking away.”

Actually, more than 110,000 cases had been recorded worldwide as of March 9, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, with 3,892 recorded deaths. Both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated there is no cure for the virus yet.

In another video that’s no longer listed on his Instagram, U.S. Attorneys said Middlebrook showed viewers a syringe with a clear liquid that was supposedly the cure for coronavirus. As of March 24, the video had more than 633,000 views.

“During these difficult days, scams like this are using blatant lies to prey upon our fears and weaknesses,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement Wednesday. “While this may be the first federal criminal case in the nation stemming from the pandemic, it certainly will not be the last.”

Last week, Attorney General William P. Barr ordered U.S. attorneys to prioritize cases involving coronavirus-related fraud. The Food and Drug Administration has also warned the public about fake coronavirus cures from opportunists trying to capitalize on the outbreak.

Cover: This April 26, 2010, file photo shows actor Keith Middlebrook at the premiere of "Iron Man 2" at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

This article originally appeared on VICE US.