Cartels offer $6,000 VIP 'ticket' to US from Mexico

Although riddled with vermin and filth, the dark and narrow tunnel that connects Ciudad Juárez in Mexico to El Paso in Texas is one of the most sought-after routes by migrants able to pay for a VIP “ticket” to enter the United States. .

Those who can afford to take the tunnel will pay at least $6,000 to the cartels, according to top Mexican state authorities, federal law enforcement officials on both sides of the border and migrants waiting to cross the Rio Grande who spoke with USA Today.

A migrant smuggler named Ricardo told the outlet he charged up to $15,000 to access the route.

For VIPs, it all depends on a code that the cartels provide them with which identifies the “travel agency” cartel they are working with. Frequently transmitted by cell phone, these codes ensure that VIP migrants are not harassed by local police or rival cartels during their journey.

A senior Mexican official who spoke to USA Today said an ongoing joint investigation by Mexican and U.S. authorities has revealed that a Juárez-based cartel, La Linea, was smuggling at least 1,000 migrants through months via the drainage system to El Paso.

Experts say there has been a shift in the focus of criminal syndicates from drug trafficking to human trafficking.

“The criminals abandoned their main activity, which was drug trafficking,” Arturo Velasco, head of the anti-kidnapping unit at the Chihuahua attorney general's office, told USA Today. “Now 60 to 70 percent of their attention is devoted to migrant smuggling. »

“A kilo of cocaine can fetch $1,500, but the risk is very high,” he added. “The cost/benefit ratio of trafficking a person is $10,000, $12,000, $15,000. »

The VIP transportation system relies on a steady flow of bribes from the city's police force to high-ranking Mexican immigration officials, according to migrants and government officials.

“Corruption in Juárez, or any other Mexican border city, must be in collusion with authorities,” said Oscar Hagelsieb, former assistant special agent in charge of the city's U.S. Homeland Security Investigations Unit.

Velasco told USA Today that the Mexican National Guard and immigration authorities turn migrants over to cartels and sell migration permits, which allow legal travel through Mexico.

“From inside the shelters, they send, with officials from the National Migration Institute, information about people, then, outside, these people are kidnapped by criminal groups,” he said. declared.

In Juárez, local police play a key role in migrant smuggling operations, Velasco said.

Interviewed by USA Today, Juárez Police Chief Cesar Omar Muñoz Morales denied the corruption allegations and said it was “difficult and complicated” to “tackle things that are not formally documented “.

“It’s difficult to answer your question when there is no official complaint that our department can follow up on,” Muñoz said. “We are doing our best.”

Migrants from around the world flock to Ciudad Juárez and some, like the Chinese, pay incredibly high fees, up to $75,000 for a VIP package, Ricardo said.

Those who no longer have money find themselves camped on the banks of the Rio Grande, where they say they feel like hostages, torn between wanting to stay away from the cartels and being in full view of the United States.

Andrés, a 25-year-old Venezuelan, told USA Today he was desperate after his cartel's travel agency stopped responding to him when he ran out of money.

His only option, he said, would be to jump or crawl through the concertina barrier and escape the Texas National Guardsmen before reaching U.S. immigration authorities.