The Darién region, considered one of the most dangerous channels used by migrants from South America to reach the United States, has just been added to the Biden Administration’s investigations into human smuggling and trafficking. With the new addition, the special group Alpha, created in 2021 to fight against mafias that traffic in people, adds Colombia and Panama to the countries of the so-called Northern Triangle: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico, where it already operated.
“In the last three years we have focused on establishing relationships, investigating leads, pursuing cases in those areas and the events have taken us further and further into the Darien jungle,” said a senior Justice Department official. The Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and border patrol have participated in the investigations.
The Darién Gap, also called, is a 100-kilometer extension that goes into the jungle and is one of the most used passages by mafias to smuggle people illegally between Colombia and Panama. In recent years it has become one of the most risky crossings undertaken by migrants, who need guides to cross on foot an inhospitable region of dense vegetation controlled by organized crime networks. The dangers not only come from the extreme conditions imposed by the terrain; Murders, rapes, robberies and extortions are the order of the day on this journey. To avoid this, many try the sea route, where they also risk their lives.
The Alpha unit has announced that it will operate in this area as it has done with the countries of the Northern Triangle, working first with the prosecutors of Colombia and Panama, to, from there, build cases that can lead to the extradition of the leaders of traffic networks. “Despite the success and significant impact the initiative has had so far, we are realistic. We have more important and challenging work ahead of us to attack human trafficking between South America and Central America, which can be a matter of life or death,” the Department of Justice has said. In the three years that it has been operating, its leaders claim to have achieved more than 300 arrests and about 240 convictions.
Wanted: The Gulf Clan
One of the targets of the special group is the Gulf Clan, which is presumed to operate in the region. The State Department has offered up to eight million dollars to anyone who offers information about this Colombian cartel, also called Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, which, they claim, dominates the illegal trafficking of people through the Darién. The money is part of the Rewards Program for Transnational Organized Crime which, according to the same sources, has led to the arrest of 90 transnational criminals. Additionally, the department has another narcotics rewards program that has spent $182 million obtaining information on cartels.
The Biden Government also wants to extend penalties for mafia leaders who traffic people, for which it has presented a legislative proposal in Congress. The initiative extends sentences for traffickers if there are injuries, deaths or sexual crimes committed during the journey, even if they occur outside the United States.
One of the most recent cases operated by the Alpha group is that of María Mendoza-Mendoza, alias La Güera, who on May 28 was sentenced to 10 years in prison for leading an organization that has trafficked more than 100 people from Honduras. . Still pending trial is another notable case, that of Ofelia Hernández Salas, extradited from Mexico in September of last year and accused of human trafficking with networks in numerous countries, including Yemen, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil and Mexico. .
The Department of Justice points out that the new executive order signed by Biden that will limit the right to asylum and close the border will not affect their work, although they hope it will reduce the number of people trying to cross illegally into the United States.
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