Human-smuggler industry well-organized, like cartels

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MESA — Human smugglers have built sophisticated criminal enterprises generating an estimated $2.5 billion annually through their Arizona operations alone, authorities say.

Working in league with Mexican drug cartels, human-smuggling kingpins have set up networks of drivers, warehouse operators, distribution specialists and enforcers to move their loads from northern Sonora through the Phoenix metropolitan area and to their final destinations throughout the U.S.

The smugglers, or coyotes, call the illegal immigrants pollos — chickens — human cargo without value beyond what it can bring on the open market, the East Valley Tribune reported in a series on the human-smuggling industry.

“For a while, I think there was a sense that the coyotes were sort of freedom fighters, that they were one step removed from the Humane Borders people who provide water and transportation out of the goodness of their hearts,â€