“I wanted to know how the boy was, it’s just that I couldn’t go and five more boys were arriving right now, but it seems that there was a little problem there on the trip, well, you will understand me, so as not to explain to you by cell phone.” This conversation is part of the evidence that the authorities have against Juan Camilo Rubio Nieto, who became the first Colombian extradited for the crime of migrant smuggling and who started in this business as an Uber driver.
This character, say the investigators, was apparently part of one of the largest migrant smuggling networks in the country and was dedicated to obtaining economic benefits by taking advantage of irregular foreigners who use Colombia as a transit route to reach the migrants. USA.
Their victims were generally migrants from Nepal, Bangladesh, Africans and Muslims, who considered that there was no future in their places of origin and therefore decided to take suitcases with just what was necessary to start an uncertain journey, exposing their lives and those of their loved ones. relatives with the sole purpose of achieving the American dream.
Javier, say the authorities, kept contacts for transportation, lodging and food, services for which he charged between 5,000 and 7,000 dollars, money that included picking them up in the border area with Ecuador and taking them to Urabá so that they could cross on foot to Panama by the hazardous Darien Gap.
In one of Javier’s conversations with one of the drivers of the network, to which SEMANA had access, it is heard when he says to his accomplice: “Calm down, daddy, don’t worry about the day’s work, don’t worry, we’ll arrange that, the important thing is that you’re okay, daddy, because they can stay, the important thing is that you’re okay.”
The African: This man, I don’t know what happened.
IT’S AT: I tell, I tell. The same, if you don’t send me full, we can’t send, because look, without money.
The investigation by the Police revealed that the organization of Africano and alias Javier moved about 1,500 migrants irregularly through the national territory, as evidenced in this other audio.
Ana (network member): Hola.
Camilo (aka Javier): How are you doing?
C.: Hello Anita, how are you doing? Is she busy?
A.: No, daddy, calm down, tell me.
C.: It seems that there was a little problem over there on the trip, so they had to leave them over there on the way, well you understand me, so as not to explain to you by cell phone.
A.: Yes, yes, yes, and then, well, I haven’t given him breakfast, because since you asked for a lot of fruit for him, no, then I imagine he’ll still have it. It’s that he has the door closed.
C.: Well, let’s buy him more fruit. Let’s buy him bananas, apples, mangoes and milk.
In another line of the conversation, Javier and Ana talk about the accommodation of migrants:
Camilo: So in a little while I’ll bring you the room from yesterday and today. At what time was he admitted yesterday?
And: At two in the afternoon.
C.: In other words, I’m owing him what happened at two o’clock yesterday, and what happened at two o’clock tomorrow. That is, 100,000 pesos.
“Javier was the person in charge of coordinating the leaders in the main cities of each department, such as Ipiales, Cali, Medellín and Urabá,” a police investigator told SEMANA. In that order of ideas, he said, the role consisted of locating transportation, food and lodging, and collecting the money for all the logistics.
To demonstrate the role of Javier or Camilo before a judge, the Prosecutor’s Office presented this other interception in which he talks with other members of the network about the logistics for the “trasteo” of migrants: “I try to do everything possible to pass now for a while and take the money from the hotel yesterday and today, because I am owing you what happened yesterday and today, yes or no?, and what belongs to the other two boys”.
Javier Camilo Rubio, 35 years old, according to the investigation, before supposedly becoming one of the most important men in the network, was a humble driver of a popular application that offers public transport services. Everything seems to point to the fact that, in the midst of his daily work as a driver, he met alias El Africano, whom he began to transfer migrants to, without knowing what he was doing, but over time he forged a close trust with foreigners. , as was revealed in this other audio obtained by SEMANA.
Camilo: What happened, old doll?
The African: All good. Did they both arrive?
C.: Yes, daddy, they’ve arrived, right now, about half an hour ago, they should go there, to bring them food, they’ve already been left there and the other two leave at 11 at night.
IT’S AT: Carlos and the other one, right?
C: Yes, those who came first.
C.: Those leave at 11 at night.
After obtaining the evidence against the criminal structure, the Colombian and Ecuadorian authorities carried out simultaneous operations in Ipiales, Pasto, Cali, Medellín, Turbo, Barranquilla, Cúcuta and Ecuador, capturing 31 people. However, Camilo, or Javier, had flown, and it was learned that his destination had been Chile.
“With the capture of alias Javier, a strong message is sent to Colombian criminals, who seek to elude Colombian authorities in other countries. We are strengthening our work to prosecute criminal organizations that profit from the smuggling of migrants,” said the director of the Dijín, General Olga Salazar.
The authorities are investigating whether this organization would be responsible for the death of ten children and nine adults who were transported in pangas, and who died trying to find a better future, while the network profited from this human drama.