Authorities in the Mexican border state of Sonora revealed that a cartel-connected human smuggling network recorded videos showing the beating of migrants with a paddle in an effort to extort their loved ones. Sonora is the same Mexican border state where the Sinaloa Cartel made headlines for using a paddle to torture local food vendors and small business owners as part of an extortion scheme.
The incidents took place recently in Sonoyta — located just south of Lukeville, Arizona — the Sonora Attorney General’s Office revealed. As part of the network, authorities identified two human smugglers and two drivers from a commercial bus line who would identify and photograph the migrants to be targeted upon their arrival in Sonora.
Authorities revealed they had found several videos showing the human smugglers beating the migrants. The videos were allegedly used to extort relatives living in the United States.
According to investigators, the investigation began when one migrant escaped from a stash house and identified two smugglers who authorities had arrested days before. As part of the investigation, authorities learned of the two bus drivers’ role in the operation. Authorities stopped the bus last week in the city of Hermosillo. Inside the bus, authorities also found 24 African migrants and two migrants from South America.
The migrants all carried false immigration documents. The information released by Sonoran authorities does not specify if any members of Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) were involved or are under investigation in connection with the case.
While authorities did not name the criminal organization behind the human smuggling operation, the state of Sonora is under the control of various cells of the Sinaloa Cartel. With the cooperation of corrupt officials, the Sinaloa cartel ultimately controls all the illicit crossing of drugs, migrants, and commercial goods — both legal and illegal — in the region.
The State of Sinaloa made headlines earlier this year when public officials tried to hide a series of extortion rackets by the Sinaloa Cartel in Caborca. As Breitbart Texas reported, state authorities were forced to admit they had an extortion problem after several videos of cartel gunmen beating street food vendors and mechanics with a paddle made national news. Eventually, they arrested a few low-level cartel members in connection with the case.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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