El Salvador Authorities Dismantle Migrant Smuggling Ring, 10 Arrested Including 2 Police Officers

El Salvador is now cooperating with the US to curb migration as migrants often use the country as a springboard to the US-Mexico border, and this is shown in a recent operation against a massive migrant smuggling ring.

Migrants from various countries often use El Salvador as a transit point as they travel north to Guatemala and then to Mexico as they try to make the dangerous trek to the US-Mexico border. Often, these migrants are helped by illegal smugglers.

According to the Associated Press, 10 people have been arrested as part of the operation, including two who were identified as police officers. The migrant smuggling ring that they are part of reportedly charges people who want to get to the US around $15,000 with the promise of "safe travel."

The people arrested are alleged smugglers, or "coyotes," as they are called. Two of them are police officers, and one is an active member of the Salvadoran National Police while a second man was identified as a former policeman. The raids happened in the capital, San Salvador, with other raids also taking place in two other cities, Santa Ana in the west and San Miguel in the east.

During this series of raids, authorities seized four vehicles and over a dozen cell phones. These may be used as evidence against these alleged migrant smugglers.

El Salvador Migrant Smuggling Ring's Modus Operandi Exposed

These migrant smuggling rings operating in El Salvador often used blind spots on the Guatemala-El Salvador border to traffic their charges and then enter Mexico before taking them across the US-Mexico border. A July 2022 investigation showed that these smugglers often charge poor and desperate migrants between $12,000 and $15,000 per person.

However, many of these migrants, about 33 of whom had spoken to authorities, who use these Salvadoran smuggling rings complained that after they paid these massive amounts, they were not taken to the US.

The rise in migrants using El Salvador as a transit point is thanks to Nicaragua. As Latin Post previously reported, the Central American country's Daniel Ortega regime is using charter flights from Haiti and Cuba to flood the US-Mexico border with more migrants. This is being done as a bargaining chip for the infamous authoritarian regime amid US sanctions over its human rights abuses.

However, many also arrive via El Salvador, but thanks to US pressure to help curb migration, the country has added a massive $1,130 fee to people arriving in El Salvador from dozens of countries, including ones from Africa, according to NBC News.

El Salvador Continues Cracking Down on Dangerous Gangs

While it is cracking down on migrant smugglers, El Salvador is also busy cracking down on infamous gangs such as MS-13.

Just last month, 4,000 soldiers and police besieged two towns reportedly controlled by these infamous gangs as part of this massive crackdown, according to France 24. The country's leader, Nayib Bukele, has doubled down on these crackdowns despite complaints from human rights groups as many innocent men have been wrongfully arrested as part of Bukele's emergency powers.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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