[ad_1]
The migration policies implemented by the United States government have given organized crime in Mexico new opportunities to profit from the smuggling and kidnapping of migrants, warns an InSight Crime analysis.
For years, criminal groups in Mexico have taken advantage of the transportation of migrants and the kidnapping of those who are heading to the north of the country. However, InSight maintains, the reinstatement of the “Stay in Mexico or Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)” program, and the continuation of policies such as Title 42, have given crime an opportunity to kidnap migrants, especially in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, where such crime is controlled by the Northeast Cartel, according to a December 2021 report published by Stephanie Leutert, director of the Central America and Mexico Policy Initiative at the Strauss Center for International Security. and Law, from the University of Texas at Austin.
Migrant ransoms typically range from $7,000 to $10,000. When the payment has been made, the migrants are released and receive a password. If they are detained again, according to Leutert, the group checks their ledgers to confirm that the migrant received a password and has paid the ransom.
If a certain group kidnaps 10 people a day and demands between $7,000 and $10,000 and gets an average of seven payments of $5,000 per person, it earns a total of $35,000 every day, the analysis warns.
“When you make tens of thousands of dollars a day kidnapping migrants, you can put more people on the payroll, corrupt more officials and buy more weapons,” says Leutert.
“As long as US policy continues to return migrants to border cities like Nuevo Laredo, organized crime groups can count on a steady stream of revenue to bolster their illegal activity,” InSight Crime underlines.
maritza.perez@eleconomista.mx
[ad_2]