(ConservativeSense.com) – The Gulf Cartel is kidnapping migrants on their way to the southern US border, according to Mexican officials. Authorities in Tamaulipas recently rescued 61 migrants from a house in the border city of Reynosa, but did not arrest any of those responsible for allegedly holding the migrants against their will.
The rescue comes just weeks after a group of Gulf Cartel gunmen stopped a bus and removed all 32 passengers, held them for days, and then released them. The case resulted in a national scandal in Mexico as law enforcement officials took credit for the hostage release, saying it was the result of a coordinated effort. But days later, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador admitted that the gunmen had simply let the hostages go.
Following their release, authorities moved the migrants to the city of Matamoros to await their entry to the United States.
Last summer, Mexico’s government stated that gangs and drug cartels kidnapped more than 2,000 migrants over the previous year. Authorities south of the border said they freed 2,115 people of varying nationalities in 2022, and evidence emerged that the cartels were charging migrants fees to cross Mexico to reach the US border.
In December, the House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green issued a statement that included evidence from Border Patrol agents claiming that Mexican cartels have complete control over the southern border. Green said that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had “ceded ground along our border to these heartless criminals and have allowed their malign activities to destabilize cities and towns across the country.”
The report came after the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability conducted interviews with several frontline border patrol officers and found that cartels were raking in “historic profits” through expansive drug and migrant smuggling operations on the border. Secretary Mayorkas admitted to a group of Senators that he was unaware of the cartel’s operations or how they conducted them.
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