Nearly 270 people involved in the smuggling of human beings and migrants have been arrested and imprisoned after a police operation targeting specialized criminal networks in Latin America and the Caribbean, Interpol announced on Wednesday.
Called “Turquesa IV”, the operation took place over five days (November 28-December 2) in 32 countries, explained in a press release the institution based in Lyon (central eastern France), which coordinate.
Frontline officers carried out checks at hotspots, with a focus on transit points such as airports, bus stations and border crossings.
According to a preliminary toll, 268 people suspected of involvement in migrant smuggling, human trafficking or related crimes such as document fraud and sexual offenses have been arrested.
A total of 9,015 irregular migrants were identified, and 128 women and two men rescued from human trafficking. Most trafficking victims were from Colombia and Venezuela.
Many migrants from all parts of the world heading for North America have been intercepted in Central America. This was particularly the case in Mexico with 2,400 migrants from the Americas (Venezuela, Cuba), Africa (Angola, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Ethiopia) and Asia (Bangladesh and Nepal).
In Nicaragua, the police detected more than 2,000 migrants from Asia, Africa, Haiti and Ecuador who wanted to go to the United States or Canada.
In Honduras, a 30-year-old woman suspected of being involved in the sexual exploitation of three minors has been arrested.
Authorities in El Salvador have arrested a number of women suspected of subjecting their own children, including a disabled girl, to sexual exploitation.
Operations also took place in Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay and Brazil.
“Human trafficking and migrant smuggling are criminal industries worth billions of euros, financing the most dangerous organized criminal groups in the world and violating the fundamental rights of victims”, underlined the Secretary General of Interpol, Jürgen Stock, quoted in the press release.
“The stories we hear of the exploitation of migrants around the world in operations like Turquesa IV are heartbreaking,” he added.
The operation was funded by the Canadian Ministry of Global Affairs.