MEXICO CITY: Eleven suspects were arrested in three states on charges that they ran an international network that smuggled people from Central America into the United States via Mexico, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said.
“As a result of actions against a transnational criminal organization dedicated to trafficking in people, including unaccompanied minor migrants, that operates in Central America with the United States of America as its destination via Mexico, 11 members of said group have been detained,” the AG’s office said in a statement.
The suspects were arrested in Oaxaca and Guerrero states, both in southern Mexico, and in the central state of Puebla, the AG’s office said.
The arrests were made as part of an investigation that started several months ago and is being coordinated with officials in El Salvador and Guatemala, the SEIDO organized crime unit said.
The people trafficking network used maritime routes on Mexico’s Pacific coast to move the migrants, the Special Unit for Investigations of Trafficking in Minors, People and Organs, or UEITMPO, said.
Migrants were taken to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, and later moved by land via several other states to northern Mexico, the UEITMPO said.
Investigators searched 10 properties, including a bar, in Oaxaca, as well as one property in Puebla and two in Guerrero.
Cash, bank cards and documents, firearms, ammunition, cell phones and five vehicles were seized, the AG’s office said.
The suspects were turned over to federal prosecutors, who plan to charge them with people trafficking and organized crime.
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