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  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Mexican cartels ramp up human smuggling business

    By Shelby Payne. CREATED 5:00 PM

    EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Recent waves of Central American immigrants arriving illegally in the U.S. have made human smuggling at least temporarily more lucrative for Mexican drug cartels, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent.

    Oscar Hagelsieb, assistant special agent charge of the department's investigations unit in El Paso, told The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/VY6fpN) for a Saturday report that the Gulf cartel and others in the region have "clamped their claws" into human smuggling, without abandoning their drug smuggling activities.

    "We've been able to trace millions of dollars going into the Reynosa area. You cannot operate a criminal venture of that magnitude without the cartels having a major role in it," Hagelsieb said.

    Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, associate professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville, says new groups could also get involved in human smuggling, which she said has "become much more profitable."

    Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said August 20 that more than 360 smugglers were arrested and more than $800,000 in illicit payments seized since the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's anti-smuggling Operation Coyote began in July.

    From October to July, about 63,000 unaccompanied children were detained after entering the U.S. illegally, double the number from the same period a year earlier. Another 63,000 families - mothers or fathers with young children - were picked up during that period.

    But Mexico's largest crackdown in decades on illegal migration has decreased the flow of Central Americans trying to reach the United States, and has dramatically cut the number of child migrants and families.

    The Mexican government has dispatched immigration agents to scour the lines that carry the freight trains known as The Beast in an effort to discourage migrants from trying to hitch a ride to Mexico's northern border.

    http://www.jrn.com/kgun9/news/Mexica...273335791.html
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    For some cartels, human smuggling has taken priority over drugs

    By ALFREDO CORCHADO
    Mexico Bureau
    Published: 29 August 2014 11:26 PM
    Updated: 29 August 2014 11:46 PM


    /U.S. Customs and Border Protection
    Immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally in Arizona were detained this month after being found locked in the cargo area of a rental truck at a Border Patrol checkpoint.


    EL PASO — With recent waves of Central Americans seeking to reach the U.S., human smuggling along the Texas border has, at least for the moment, become more lucrative than smuggling illicit drugs for criminal organizations such as the Gulf and Zetas cartels, according to two U.S. intelligence officials.

    U.S. agents tracking the money flow as part of the anti-smuggling Operation Coyote say that in just over six months, human smuggling has generated nearly $50 million, mostly in the area around the Mexican border city of Reynosa. The revenue has helped sustain the Gulf cartel during a bloody internal split, the officials said. Some factions of the Gulf cartel are now working with the Sinaloa cartel, they said, and another faction has joined forces with the Zetas, increasing violence and making the situation along the border more perilous.

    “I’m not suggesting that the cartels have abandoned their drug-smuggling activities,” said Oscar Hagelsieb, assistant special agent-in-charge of Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso. “But with all the money to be made in human smuggling, they clamped their claws into it as well. Big time.

    “Without a doubt, there are Gulf cartel links. We've been able to trace millions of dollars going into the Reynosa area. You cannot operate a criminal venture of that magnitude without the cartels having a major role in it.”

    He said that U.S. authorities have identified “key operatives” of other cartels in the region “that are now heavily involved in alien smuggling.”

    The smuggling operations could increase even more following recent steps by the Mexican government to stem the flow of would-be immigrants by blocking them from hitching rides on freight trains. The government said it plans to increase the speed of the trains, known collectively as “The Beast,” or La Bestia, and to monitor the trains via satellite cameras

    The government said the moves are part of an effort to discourage Central Americans from using the train because of the dangers they pose. Over the years, many have been killed or maimed by falling under the wheels of the trains, or have been targeted by criminals.

    A U.S. intelligence agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he expected the new obstacles to force more migrants to hire smugglers. A typical smuggler’s fee for getting a Central American to a U.S. destination has already risen from an average of $6,000 to more than $8,000, the agent said.

    Critics say that such moves to deter migrants only push them further underground, making smugglers more indispensable.

    “Everyone wants to make them disappear, snap their fingers and push them away,” said Rubén Figueroa, an immigrant activist at a migrant shelter in Tenosique, in Mexico’s southern Tabasco state. “But no one is dealing with the root of the problem, which is violence and poverty. No one is talking about solving the problem by generating jobs and providing security. Now they want to push them deeper into the shadows.”

    William Lorenzo Fernández, a Honduran selling candy and begging for tips in Mexico City to raise money to reach Texas “by foot, if I have to,” challenged the idea that the government was looking out for the safety of migrants.

    “This isn't because of the government's concern for us, but because the Americans are pressuring them,” he said. “Tell the truth."

    U.S. officials, including Hagelsieb, expect another surge of Central Americans this fall after temperatures cool and the media spotlight fades.

    Since October of last year, at least 63,000 unauthorized immigrant juveniles have been detained at the border.

    Since the mid-2000s, authorities have seen Mexican cartels expand their activities from mostly drug smuggling to other operations, including counterfeiting goods, kidnapping, extortion and human smuggling. Tensions have risen with the recent cartel infighting, authorities said, with gunfights in border cities like Reynosa, where many Central Americans arrive aboard The Beast.

    Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, associate professor and chairwoman of the government department at the University of Texas at Brownsville, doesn’t discount the possibility that new groups will get involved in the business of smuggling, which she said has “become much more profitable,” she said.

    Operation Coyote is aimed at taking down human smuggling operations by targeting the money. Recently, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson announced that 363 smugglers and their associates had been arrested and more than $800,000 in illicit payments seized. One of the smugglers arrested was single-handedly responsible for luring “a vast number” of Central Americans, U.S. officials said. They declined to provide more details, citing ongoing investigations.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/news/natio...over-drugs.ece
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