EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Police in Juarez, Mexico, have arrested 11 men for allegedly trying to illegally cross more than three dozen migrants into the United States.
Chihuahua state police officers on Wednesday responded to reports of a large group of people walking toward marker 342 of the U.S. border wall in the Anapra neighborhood of northwest Juarez.
The officers caught up with the group of 34 adults and three minors and identified a dozen as Central and South American citizens, the state police said in a statement. Officers canvassed the neighborhood, identified two vehicles allegedly used to transport the migrants and arrested 11 residents on smuggling charges.
Authorities took the migrants to the Juarez Red Cross building for medical checkups and a meal. Those who were not Mexican citizens remained in the custody of the National Migration Institute on Thursday.
Chihuahua police only identified the suspects by their first names: Humberto Alexis “N”, 22; Diego “N”, 20; Brayan Osvaldo “N”, 23; Francisco Javier “N”, 21; Jesús Cobani “N”, 21; Gabriel Alonso “N”, 29; Kevin Enrique “N”, 24; Francisco Guillermo “N”, 22; Mario Alberto “N”, 38; José Isaac “N”, 31; and Daniel Alberto “N”, 41.
Authorities did not say if the men belong to an organized criminal group or what their individual roles were in the smuggling scheme. Anapra, across the border from Sunland Park, New Mexico, has long been known as a staging point for migrant smuggling organizations.
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