Guatemala dismantles major migrant smuggling network involving police

Guatemalan authorities dismantled a migrant smuggling network bound for the United States on Tuesday that included police officers, according to Interior Minister Francisco Jiménez. The minister said that 36 people were arrested, including 23 active police officers and two retired police officers.

“Today (Tuesday) morning, a criminal structure dedicated to human trafficking was dismantled,” Jiménez said on the social network that they trafficked on the roads of the country”. country,” he added.

For its part, the United States Embassy in Guatemala declared the ).

The diplomatic mission added that the structure “exploited” “nearly 10,000 migrants” and highlighted “bilateral coordination and exchange of information” to make the arrests.

Central America serves as a corridor for thousands of migrants from different parts of the world seeking to reach the United States. Additionally, thousands of Central Americans are leaving their countries to escape poverty, lack of employment, low wages and criminal violence.

Jiménez explained that the operation is part of President Bernardo Arévalo’s “strategy” “not to criminalize migrants, but to pursue and dismantle human trafficking structures.” “The result of this dismantling is due to the internal collaboration of the National Civil Police itself,” indicated the minister.

During the operation, which involved 34 raids in towns in the east, west, south and in the country’s capital (center), “four vehicles, a firearm and cash” were also seized, prosecutor Marvin Orellana told reporters. Orellana explained that the network moved migrants from Russia, China, Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Vietnam, among other nationalities.