EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Mexican and U.S. officials cooperated in dismantling a transnational smuggling operation in Juarez along the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday night, Feb. 19, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The smuggling group, which is based in Juarez, utilizes corridors in Anapra, Chihuahua, and the Santa Teresa area, DOJ said.
DOJ said the group employs Mexican nationals, many of whom are current and former members of various Mexican cartels, and is alleged to be responsible for illegally smuggling a large number of individuals including children from Central America into El Paso.
In addition, the group is also alleged to have kidnapped migrants seeking to enter the U.S. illegally and extort their families for money before “completing their smuggling journey,” DOJ said.
DOJ said the enforcement operation included two arrest warrants in Mexico for alleged migrant smugglers Brian Alan Torres Gonzalez and Soledad Morales Nava. Torres and Nava are Mexican citizens and will be prosecuted in Mexico with evidence provided by the U.S.
“On her first day in office, the Attorney General directed the Department of Justice to prioritize efforts to achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and empowered Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA) to increase their contributions to this fight,” Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said.
“Today’s action by Mexican authorities is the latest example of how JTFA provides critical contributions to marshal the investigative and prosecutorial resources of the Department, and its law enforcement partners, to target human smugglers and enhance coordination in transnational law enforcement efforts to better combat these criminal organizations,” Bacon said.
U.S. authorities assisted the Mexico Attorney General’s Office under the JFTA and have marshaled investigative and prosecutorial resources of the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security to enhance efforts against human smuggling and trafficking groups in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, and Panama, DOJ said.
ICE-HSI El Paso, ICE HSI-Mexico, the DOJ, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas in El Paso, HRSP, and the Office of the Judicial Attache in Mexico City assisted in the operation.
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