A joint operation between Chilean authorities and Interpol has led to the dismantling of an international people smuggling ring that ferried at least 1,000 Haitian migrants from Chile towards Mexico and the United States.
Law enforcement agents arrested nine alleged members of the ring in the northern town of Arica on September 29, Interpol said in a statement Monday.
The suspects included four Chileans, two Venezuelans, one Peruvian, one Haitian and one Paraguayan. Each of them are being charged with unlawful association and migrant smuggling.
The smuggling ring suspects had been on the radar of the Investigations Police of Chile dating back to January 2020, and used WhatsApp chat groups to hawk their illegal immigration services to Haitians.
Interpol announced Monday that its agents aided Chilean authorities in an investigation that led to the arrest of nine members of a migrant smuggling ring. The network had been ferrying at least 1,000 Haitian migrants to Mexico and the United States. For the most part as 267 children who were born in Chile to Haitian migrants were for sent alone to the U.S. but got stranded in Central America or Mexico due to COVID-19 border restrictions in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico. Pictured is a group of individuals who were staying at a home in northern city of Arica that was raided as part of the inquiry into the smuggling network
Chilean authorities raid a property on September 29 in the northern city of Arica where a smuggling ring allegedly was operating from. The criminal network reportedly smuggled at least 1,000 Haitian migrants, including 267 unaccompanied children, to Mexico and the United States
A member of a people smuggling ring, who reportedly ferried Haitian migrants to Mexico and the United States, is arrested September 29
'It's horrifying to think what these vulnerable children, some just a few years old, have suffered,' Interpol secretary general Jürgen Stock said in a press release.
Authorities learned that the criminal network smuggled 267 Chilean children who were born to Haitian migrants.
They were either crossed into Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua or Panama with the United States
