2023-11-30 04:16:02
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Suspected members of a drug cartel kidnapped seven Mexican immigration agents at gunpoint in Cancun on Wednesday, beating them and threatening to kill them before they were released.
The audacious mass kidnapping occurred near Cancun international airport, and highlighted the extent to which Mexican cartels and other criminal groups have become involved in the smuggling and kidnapping of migrants.
Federal forces later located the residence where the agents were being held inside the Caribbean resort city. The security forces, apparently members of the Navy and the National Guard, along with elements of the local police, exchanged gunfire with the kidnappers and freed the agents. They did not detail whether anyone was injured during the confrontation.
Agents said following their release that the suspects threatened to kill them unless they allowed migrants to be smuggled through the airport and through other parts of the state of Quintana Roo.
It was the first mass kidnapping of this type of immigration agents in Mexico.
“The criminals used several vehicles to encapsulate and crash the unit in which the INM elements were traveling,” the National Migration Institute said in a statement. “When they were brought down, the officials were subdued with firearms, beaten and taken to a safe house.”
The agents stated that, while they were detained – the agency did not detail for how long – they were threatened with death and “warned to stop carrying out operations once morest irregular migration that transits through the state.”
The institute did not identify which criminal group the kidnappers belonged to, but noted that they acted in a “criminal association,” a term usually reserved in Mexico for drug trafficking cartels, many of which operate in Cancun.
Cancun’s huge airport, the second busiest in the country, handles nearly 30 million passengers a year. It has long been a port of entry for migrants heading to the United States, due to the large number of flights arriving from South America and other parts of the world.
As a “VIP” route, Cancun is a particularly lucrative location for smugglers, because higher-paying migrants prefer to fly to Mexico with false documents or bribes, rather than undertake the dangerous and grueling journey through the Darien Gap and Central America. .
Mexican cartels appear to be increasing their share of income from human trafficking, in part due to the increase in the number of migrants entering and the growing number of migrants from countries like Cuba, whose relatives in the United States can pay more money.
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