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 Editorials | At Issue | November 2005 
Prosecuting Smugglers a Challenge
 Francisco Gómez & Silvia Otero - El Universal
The package was comparable to some luxury travel deals, including airfare to Mexico, meals, reception at the airport and hotel accommodations. Once arriving at the U.S. border, however, the migrants were on their own.
The sophisticated smuggling ring charged Central American migrants US5,000 to get to the United States from Guatemala. Mexican migration and airport officials were in on the action as well, taking payoffs from the Guatemalan smugglers to facilitate their entry into the country, according to court files.
However, Bernal Méndez Serrano, the accused head of the ring, in federal custody after being arrested in Veracruz last year, may walk free soon because witnesses who tipped off authorities could not be located to testify.
These witnesses are the same migrants who paid the smugglers last year to reach the United States and were later left to their own devices. They were soon apprehended by the border patrol and returned to Mexico.
The migrants later reported to federal authorities the activities of the smuggling ring and the collusion of Mexican officials, then promptly disappeared.
If federal prosecutors can't find the witnesses soon, the court reviewing the case will have little choice but to let Méndez Serrano go.
The case reflects the difficulties federal authorities face in dismantling migrant smuggling rings.
While the Attorney General's Office (PGR) has detained around 200 migrant smugglers since it began a program targeting them last August, many of the main bands continue to operate despite the arrests.
The bands are also becoming more sophisticated, as shown by the case of the Guatemalan ring.
For example, the migrants who arrived in Mexico City by plane were instructed to all wear the same color clothing so that migration officials could recognize them.
After being escorted through customs, the migrants were then taken to the waiting room for another flight to Ciudad Juárez.
They went through a similar drill upon arrival in Juárez, where they were dropped off with taxis who took them to luxury hotels. The hotel employees had been previously told not to leave records of the clients.
However, despite all of the other arrangements, Méndez Serrano's band had little power once they crossed the border.
"When the border patrol arrived, they just told us to run," said one of the migrants to federal authorities. |
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