Migrant crossings remain low, but stash house numbers are similar to last year’s in Juárez
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Chihuahua (KVIA) -- The Chihuahua State Police Department (SSPE) continues to rescue migrants held at stash houses by alleged human smugglers in Ciudad Juárez.
According to a spokesperson from SSPE Chihuahua, this year they have found 261 migrants so far, compared to 265 last year. Across the entire state, they have found 268 migrants this year so far, and 310 last year.
"Some years ago, it was a topic with a lot of social mobility, where thousands of people arrived in caravans, by train, walking, and there were even cases of people getting lost in the desert," said SSPE Assistant Police Chief Luis Ángel Aguirre. "There were situations where even people walking on the road got involved in traffic accidents because a car hit them or something."
According to Assistant Police Chief Aguirre, binational security meetings are held to prevent migrants from being kidnapped or crossing illegally into the U.S.
In Mexico, SSPE Chihuahua collaborates with the Mexico Attorney's Office (FGR), the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office (FGE), the Mexican Army, the National Guard, and the Mexican Immigration National Institute (INAMI), among others.
Aguirre also said that collaborations with U.S. agencies are a key factor in their success in locating stash houses, with HSI assisting them the last time to find one.
In that stash house, SSPE officers and detectives found 17 migrants, three alleged smugglers, firearms, and over $16,000 in cash.
Along with Border Patrol and other binational agencies, SSPE Chihuahua continues their "mirror operation," patrolling both sides of the border wall simultaneously to prevent illegal crossings.
Over the past 51 months, SSPE has conducted more than 206 operations with Border Patrol, rescuing approximately 1,576 migrants.
Migrants are often told by smugglers that they will be taken across the border to the U.S. before being held at stash houses, where criminal organizations ask for money for their release.
"So what they (smugglers) did was practically receive these migrants, coordinate them, carry out all these irregular activities of prostitution, drug sales, collection, use of space, all these situations to which this irregular ecosystem of these migrants lends itself and that this has led us to identify networks, to identify which local gangs they are linking with, that is also a reality," said SSPE Assistant Chief Aguirre.
"The unique aspect of the Aragua train is that they form alliances with all the local gangs to have stronger logistics and communication, because what they want is to take advantage of the flow of people to traffic drugs, to traffic people, to traffic any type of contraband," added SSPE Assistant Chief Aguirre.
Since the current Chihuahua state administration began, SSPE has arrested 144 suspected human traffickers, seized 65 firearms, over 5,500 rounds of ammunition, more than 17 kilos of various drugs, as well as over 128,000 Mexican pesos and $52,000.
