Agents and high-ranking officials with Mexico’s National Immigration Institute are now the subjects of a federal corruption probe, tying them to human smuggling and trafficking activities. Some have already been quietly removed from their positions without arrests.
The case involves some of the highest immigration officials in the border state of Nuevo Leon. Known as the INM, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute is the sole entity tasked with issuing travel documents and enforcing immigration laws. However, agents in key border cities and states are working with criminal organizations and cartels to help facilitate the smuggling of migrants into Mexico and to the United States. In some cases, like in Tamaulipas, INM agents turned over deported migrants to cartels so they could be smuggled again or extorted.
Breitbart Texas exclusively obtained case files related to an investigation involving INM employees who returned a previously seized vehicle to a human smuggling organization. Authorities found the vehicle at a Tamaulipas crime scene where state police officers murdered and incinerated 19 individuals, including 16 Central American migrants. The vehicle was a Toyota Sequoia with license plate RKY-418-A, which was seized in December in Escobedo, Nuevo Leon.
Federal authorities identified eight, high-ranking officials and agents whom have since been removed from their positions.
During the investigation, which was ordered by Mexico’s Secretariat of the Interior, authorities also tied INM agents to illegally issued entry permits at two airports, migrant extortion schemes, and bribes for expediting immigration documents.
The officials named in the probe include the interim regional head of the INM Jesus Gilberto Rodriguez Garza, Operations Coordinator César Augusto López Vega, and INM agent Jesús Misael Rodríguez Chavarria. Those three were part of the inner circle of a former INM regional delegate Daniel Torres Cantú–who left his position to seek a political post.
As a result of the ongoing investigation, the INM National Commissioner removed several agents and supervisors and named retired Army General José de Jesús Barajas Santos as the regional leader for Nuevo Leon.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is an international journalist with more than 20 years of experience working in high-risk areas for print and broadcast news outlets investigating organized crime, corruption, and drug trafficking in the U.S. and Mexico. In 2016, Gerald took up the pseudonym of “Tony” when he joined Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project. Since then, he has come out of the shadows and become a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.
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