8/8/2014
GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan authorities on Wednesday captured six men and one woman suspected of smuggling migrants to the United States, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
The arrests were made during law enforcement operations in the western province of Quetzaltenango, Alex Colop told reporters.
With assistance from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala, security forces captured seven people who were linked with the smuggling of unaccompanied minors to the United States, the prosecutor said.
The network had pocketed $3 million for taking people illegally to the United States, according to Guatemala’s interior minister, Mauricio Lopez Bonilla.
The individuals arrested in Quetzaltenango were: Antonio Rolando Chavez Paxtor, Maricela Isabel Gonzalez Hernandez, Eliseo Alvarado Gonzalez, Marciano Alvarado Gonzalez, Antonio Adonias Gonzalez Hernandez, Genaro Elias Jimenez and Pablo Arnoldo Gomez-Gonzalez.
Two other members of this organization were arrested in Mexican territory: Douglas Ivan Aguilar-Juarez and Milton Rocael Sebastian Cardona.
However, seven other people comprising the organization have yet to be arrested, he told the media.
The prosecutor said the preliminary investigation managed to establish that the group contacted Guatemalan families offering to take their children to the United States.
The children and teenagers initially were taken to Quetzaltenango, where they were kept in a hotel while the first payment for their journey was made.
Then, the youngsters were transferred to the town of La Mesilla, near the border with Mexico, where they were turned over to other “coyotes” – as the smugglers are known – who were tasked with taking them to the United States.
This is the first large-scale operation to be conducted by Guatemalan security forces against the coyotes, who make up to 50,000 quetzales ($6,400) a head for taking undocumented minors to the United States.
President Otto Perez Molina has repeatedly urged Guatemalan parents not to send their children to the United States because of the risks associated with the journey.
Some 14,000 Guatemalan children and teens have been detained on the U.S. southern border in recent months.
The increase in the illegal migration of unaccompanied minors coming mainly from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, has been called a humanitarian crisis by U.S. President Barack Obama.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently announced an ongoing surge operation in the United States to target and dismantle human smuggling operations. Less than one month into this three-month operation, U.S. officials announced that HSI had arrested 191 smugglers and their associates on criminal charges in the United States. U.S. officials also took more than 450 undocumented people into custody and seized nearly $600,000 U.S. dollars in illicit profits from U.S. bank accounts held by human smuggling and drug trafficking organizations.
source
GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan authorities on Wednesday captured six men and one woman suspected of smuggling migrants to the United States, a prosecutor said Wednesday.The arrests were made during law enforcement operations in the western province of Quetzaltenango, Alex Colop told reporters.
With assistance from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala, security forces captured seven people who were linked with the smuggling of unaccompanied minors to the United States, the prosecutor said.
The network had pocketed $3 million for taking people illegally to the United States, according to Guatemala’s interior minister, Mauricio Lopez Bonilla.
The individuals arrested in Quetzaltenango were: Antonio Rolando Chavez Paxtor, Maricela Isabel Gonzalez Hernandez, Eliseo Alvarado Gonzalez, Marciano Alvarado Gonzalez, Antonio Adonias Gonzalez Hernandez, Genaro Elias Jimenez and Pablo Arnoldo Gomez-Gonzalez.
Two other members of this organization were arrested in Mexican territory: Douglas Ivan Aguilar-Juarez and Milton Rocael Sebastian Cardona.
However, seven other people comprising the organization have yet to be arrested, he told the media.
The prosecutor said the preliminary investigation managed to establish that the group contacted Guatemalan families offering to take their children to the United States.
The children and teenagers initially were taken to Quetzaltenango, where they were kept in a hotel while the first payment for their journey was made.
Then, the youngsters were transferred to the town of La Mesilla, near the border with Mexico, where they were turned over to other “coyotes” – as the smugglers are known – who were tasked with taking them to the United States.
This is the first large-scale operation to be conducted by Guatemalan security forces against the coyotes, who make up to 50,000 quetzales ($6,400) a head for taking undocumented minors to the United States.
President Otto Perez Molina has repeatedly urged Guatemalan parents not to send their children to the United States because of the risks associated with the journey.
Some 14,000 Guatemalan children and teens have been detained on the U.S. southern border in recent months.
The increase in the illegal migration of unaccompanied minors coming mainly from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, has been called a humanitarian crisis by U.S. President Barack Obama.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently announced an ongoing surge operation in the United States to target and dismantle human smuggling operations. Less than one month into this three-month operation, U.S. officials announced that HSI had arrested 191 smugglers and their associates on criminal charges in the United States. U.S. officials also took more than 450 undocumented people into custody and seized nearly $600,000 U.S. dollars in illicit profits from U.S. bank accounts held by human smuggling and drug trafficking organizations.
source
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