SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The White House’s top immigration adviser says migrants can’t avoid reaching the border without interference from drug smugglers or human traffickers.
Blas Nuñez-Neto held an online discussion with reporters from both sides of the border on Thursday and discussed migrants’ struggles to cross the border.
“Nowadays, it’s impossible to get to the border unlawfully without crossing paths with cartels and risking their lives,” he said, adding that organized crime has a stronghold on the border, running both human trafficking and drug smuggling.
Nuñez-Neto revealed that in the past weeks, several members belonging to three different criminal organizations have been detained along the border.
“We’ll continue to go after members of organized crime who are committing crimes in the United States and we’re going to prosecute them in the weeks ahead.”
According to Nuñez-Neto, nine people have been detained and are now facing charges in federal court with 10 others being sought.
Three of the suspects in custody are said to be leaders of smuggling syndicates in Tijuana, one from the border city of Tecate and five from the state of Nayarit.
All are accused of organizing either drug or human smuggling along the southern border or out at sea.
Nuñez-Neto says migrants who are risking their lives entering the country along the water are paying smugglers anywhere from $7,000 to $16,000 a person.
He also told reporters about the arrest of Abdul Karim Conteh, of Sierra Leone, who is accused of bringing migrants from Africa, China, Middle East, Russia and other countries to Tijuana.
Karim Conteh’s wife, Veronica Roblero Pivaral, a Mexican citizen, has also been arrested for participating in the transfer of migrants to the border for the purpose of getting them across unlawfully.
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