AZMEX I3 8 AUG 2014
Note: another report from Homeland Security Today. The "children's crusade" also used to divert resources away from drug runs. Would be very interesting to see the data on the "children", how many young males of gang banger age?
7 Alleged Members Of Human Smuggling Network Arrested In Guatemala
By: Anthony Kimery, Editor-in-Chief
08/07/2014 ( 3:25pm)
http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/7-alleged-members-of-human-smuggling-network-arrested-in-guatemala/ae7283c41c8e33851d517165e0529767.html
Seven alleged members of a suspected human smuggling criminal network linked to multiple human smuggling organizations working along the US and Mexican borders, including Texas and Arizona, were arrested Wednesday in Quetzaltenango by Guatemalan law enforcement officials with the assistance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Protection.
Two other members of the organization were arrested in Mexican territory, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday.
The "nine individuals are believed to be key members of a confederation of Central American human smuggling organizations that recruit, organize and transport people, including unaccompanied children, from their points of origin in Central and South America to the United States via Arizona and South Texas," DHS said. "This organization has been directly linked with operations where Guatemalans trying to migrate north died during their journey."
During the investigation, DHS said, "multiple bank accounts used by members of this organization were identified. Account movements add up to over $3 million US dollars.
But this is merely a drop in the bucket. Homeland security officials earlier told Homeland Security Today on background that criminal human trafficking organizations smuggling people from Central America have been reaping "multi-millions."
The sources also said Mexican cartels are involved in these operations – "running them as separate smuggling criminal enterprises," one said, noting "there's hardly no criminal operations through Mexico that the cartels aren't involved in -- it's just too damned lucrative ... especially the running of children and families from Central America. The cartels have actively spread the word that they can come to the US and not be deported."
DHS said in its announcement Thursday that, "The operation leading to the arrests in Guatemala was developed jointly by Guatemala's Ministerio Publico and DHS as a result of an initiative that increased information sharing among law enforcement agencies."
The department said there was close coordination between prosecutors from the Guatemala Ministerio Publico and HSI Guatemala Country Attaché Office in targeting these smuggling networks using Guatemalan human smuggling and money laundering laws.
"In addition to arrests," DHS said, "under Guatemalan law, the HSI Guatemala Country Attaché Office is able to facilitate the seizure of assets and finances, including Guatemalan bank accounts, by the government of Guatemala -- effectively neutralizing the smuggler at the point of origin in Central America."
DHS recently announced an ongoing surge operation in the United States to target and dismantle human smuggling operations. "Less than one month into this three-month operation," the department said, "US officials announced that HSI had arrested 191 smugglers and their associates on criminal charges in the United States. US officials also took more than 450 undocumented people into custody and seized nearly $600,000 US dollars in illicit profits from US bank accounts held by human smuggling and drug trafficking organizations."
DSH said, "Human smugglers have no regard for the value of a human life and view the people they smuggle as an expendable business commodity. Smugglers may separate women from their children as another means of extorting more money and in severe cases, hold their human cargo hostage and demand more money from family members as a means to extort higher fees."
In addition, the department said, "Human smugglers often transport their human cargo -- men, women and children -- through desolate terrain without food or water or in trucks or trailers without any ventilation. They also arrange for their human cargo to be taken to drop-houses under deplorable conditions with no way to communicate with relatives or to notify authorities if there is an emergency. Some smuggled aliens have been beaten or raped."
The individuals arrested in Quetzaltenango were: Antonio Rolando Chavez Paxtor, Maricela Isabel Gonzalez Hernandez, Eliseo Alvarado Gonzalez, Marciano Alvarado Gonzalez, Antonio Adonias Gonzalez Hernandez, Genaro Elias Jimenez and Pablo Arnoldo Gomez-Gonzalez.
The two arrested in Mexico are Douglas Ivan Aguilar-Juarez and Milton Rocael Sebastian Cardona.
END
UPDATED
Women escape kidnappers in Nogales, Sonora
Posted: Friday, August 8, 2014 8:46 am
By Curt Prendergast
Nogales International | 0 comments
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/women-escape-kidnappers-in-nogales-sonora/article_28595822-1f13-11e4-9e12-001a4bcf887a.html
A woman escaped her captors in Nogales, Sonora last weekend and led police officers to where her sister remained locked in a room.
On the morning of Aug. 2, police officers responded to Las Mesitas restaurant on Obregon Avenue where a 27-year-old Guatemalan woman who was traveling with her 7-month-old son described being held captive, extorted for about $6,500, and escaping the clutches of her kidnappers only moments before speaking to police, according to a Nogales, Sonora police report.
Her 16-year-old sister was still being held against her will, she told the officers, and led them to the Gardenia Hotel on Technological Avenue, where a man she identified as "Mauricio" was holding her sister.
The woman told police she had paid Mauricio 70,000 quetzales (about $6,500), but he demanded another 40,000 quetzales (about $3,700) to free her. If she refused to pay, Mauricio threatened to take her son, so when the opportunity arose, she escaped and went looking for help.
Police officers visited the hotel and saw two men who began to act suspiciously when they realized the police were watching them, according to the police report.
The two men, Luis Arnulfo Carbajal Roblero, 24, and Hubelin Rios Camey, 28, both natives of the southern Mexico state of Chiapas, tried to hide in the hotel but were arrested and taken into custody after the 27-year-old woman identified them as her former captors.
After the arrest, police found the 16-year-old sister in a room inside the hotel and her account of the events agreed with that of her sister. After the 27-year-old sister escaped, the men kept her locked inside the room while they went out to look for her, she told police.
In February, a Honduran man told Nogales, Sonora police he had been held captive in the Colinas de Yaqui area. Officers found him with his hand cuffed and feet tied in front of a beer store. He told officers he had escaped through the window of a nearby home where two men had held him hostage.
He led officers to the residence, where they found a pistol, two machetes, a baseball bat, three rolls of adhesive tape, and two pairs of handcuffs. No arrests were reported.
END
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