Bogotá, Dec 5 (EFE). – Colombian authorities arrested 24 people, 19 civilians and five military, who were part of a migrant smuggling network that transported people to Central America.
The arrests were the result of a joint operation by the Navy, the National Army, the Colombian Air Force, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Colombian Migration Service.
The detainees are accused by the authorities of illegally transporting migrants from different Colombian cities to the Caribbean island of San Andrés and the Gulf of Urabá on the Panamanian border, and then handing them over to coyotes on their way to Australia, Canada and the United States.
To move the migrants, the network obtained documents such as university transcripts, credit histories, and real estate titles to create false family and socioeconomic profiles for nationals and foreigners seeking visas.
According to prosecutors, they also offered migrants who were denied visas to leave Colombia by land or sea toward Central America and enter the United States through unauthorized channels.
For this purpose, they allegedly provided them with lodging, food, and transportation to the Urabá region, where they eventually crossed the so-called “Darién Gap” to continue their journey to North America.
One of the detainees, a Colombian immigration official in Capurganá, a remote town on the border with Panama, placed false stamps on passports but did not register the information in the immigration system.
On other occasions, the network sent migrants on boats from the San Andrés Islands to the coast of Nicaragua.
The arrested military personnel was responsible for informing about the location of the naval units responsible for maritime control in the general area of San Andrés, so that the boats carrying migrants would not be detected.
This allowed criminals to set sail to Central America without the minimum safety conditions, with migrants that included minors and pregnant women on board.
The detainees have been placed at the disposal of the competent authorities, who are trying to “dismantle this illegal trafficking network and put an end to the abuses to which its victims are subjected,” according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
They are accused of migrant smuggling, aggravated conspiracy to commit a crime, bribery to give, bribery to receive, bribery of themselves, money laundering, espionage and use of false documents.
Nearly 500,000 people have crossed the jungle region of Darién, on the border between Colombia and Panama, one of the most used and dangerous routes for these migrants on their way to the United States, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) revealed Thursday. EFE
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