Law enforcement in Mexico discovered 120 migrants bound and blindfolded in a cartel stash house in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas. On Sunday, authorities searched the house after receiving a tip from the Embassy of Guatemala.
Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) with local police conducted a search on the safe house and found migrants chained at the feet, handcuffed, and blindfolded. The migrants were determined by authorities to be mostly from Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Two people in the home were from Mexico and their involvement remains under investigation.
Ciudad Victoria, roughly 225 miles from the U.S.-Mexico Border, is tightly controlled by the Gulf Cartel (CDG). The CDG is notorious for engaging in narcotics smuggling, money laundering, kidnapping, extortion, and human trafficking.
The means by which the migrants were bound and chained may indicate the group attempted to avoid paying the cartel to travel through their turf.
The cartel tracks each migrants’ payments to the criminal organization with wrist bracelets. Cartels meticulously record how their instituted fees are paid by assigning each migrant a pin number or “clave.” The wristbands look like hospital tags. The bracelets inform foot guides if the migrant is authorized to cross into the United States.
With the increase in migrant crossings into South Texas, the cartels are capturing record income. Internal U.S. Customs and Border protection documents reviewed by Breitbart Texas show human smugglers received up to $1 billion in December 2021 alone. On average, migrants claimed to have paid smugglers more than $5,000 each – with more than 170,000 apprehended in the month.
In 2021, Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 1.9 million migrants who illegally crossed the southwest border with Mexico between ports of entry. Another estimated half-million migrants managed to avoid apprehension and sneak into the U.S. When combining the actual apprehension totals and got-aways, nearly 2,400,000 migrants illegally crossed the border, breaking previous annual totals.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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