Cartel-Connected Traffickers Apprehended in US-Mexico Operation
The operation was part of a task force that has, to date, resulted in the apprehension of over 350 individuals involved in human smuggling activities.
An enforcement initiative carried out through a collaborative effort between the United States and Mexico has resulted in significant disruptions and arrests within human smuggling operations, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
The organization, operating out of Mexico, reportedly utilized smuggling routes focused around the Anapra, Chihuahua-Santa Teresa, New Mexico region to conduct its activities. The group allegedly employs Mexican nationals, many of whom have ties to various criminal cartels, according to the Department of Justice.
The group “is claimed to be responsible for the illegal smuggling of large numbers of individuals, including minors, from Central America into El Paso, Texas.”
Additionally, “the criminal organization is purported to have kidnapped individuals seeking to illegally enter the United States and extorted their families for monetary gain prior to completing their smuggling journey.”
During this operation, warrants were executed for two suspected human smugglers. The Mexican nationals, Brian Alan Torres Gonzalez and Soledad Morales Nava, are expected to face prosecution in Mexico, with the United States supplying evidence for the case, as noted by the DOJ.
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Washington has extended its support to the Mexico Attorney General’s Office through the Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA). Established in 2021, the JTFA consolidates resources from the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security to enhance enforcement actions against human smuggling and trafficking networks in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, and Panama.
This troop deployment is part of an agreement with the Trump administration to temporarily suspend a 25 percent tariff on Mexican exports to the United States that was slated to take effect earlier this month.
Cracking Down on Cartels
Thus far, the JTFA has been associated with the apprehension of over 350 individuals, both domestically and internationally, involved in human smuggling activities.
The initiative has resulted in over 300 U.S. convictions, with more than 245 defendants receiving sentences that include “substantial imprisonment; and considerable seizures and forfeiture of assets and contraband such as millions of dollars in cash, real estate, vehicles, firearms, ammunition, and drugs,” the DOJ reported.
Last month, two individuals received sentences of 121 and 135 months in prison, respectively, for orchestrating a human smuggling operation that aimed to illegally transport hundreds of foreign nationals into the United States. These individuals were investigated under the JTFA.
In August 2024, a significant enforcement action in Guatemala resulted in the arrest of a human smuggler indicted by the task force. This defendant is alleged to have facilitated the travel of four individuals from Guatemala to the United States, three of whom tragically perished in a tractor-trailer, while the fourth suffered severe injuries.
These designations include Mexican organizations such as the Sinaloa cartel, the Gulf cartel, the Jalisco New Generation cartel, the United cartels, the La Nueva Familia Michoacana organization, and the Northeast cartel. Furthermore, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and El Salvador’s Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) have also been classified as terrorist organizations.
The terrorist classification enables the U.S. government to target the financial resources of these groups. Authorities are now empowered to pursue individuals supplying these criminal organizations with weaponry. Additionally, the designation grants the U.S. military the authority to strike against facilities operated by the cartels.
The recent designations came in response to an executive order signed by Trump on January 20, which called for an assessment of the possibility of classifying cartels and transnational gangs as terrorist organizations.
“The cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries of significant importance to our national interests but has also inundated the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and brutal gangs,” the order stated.
