Chile Busts Int'l Crime Ring Suspected Of Smuggling Haitian Migrants' Children - Interpol

Nine members of an international crime group were arrested by Chile's police on suspicion of smuggling over a thousand Haitian migrants from Chile to Mexico and the United States, Interpol said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2021) Nine members of an international crime group were arrested by Chile's police on suspicion of smuggling over a thousand Haitian migrants from Chile to Mexico and the United States, Interpol said on Monday.

The suspects, from Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Haiti and Paraguay, were arrested on Wednesday in the Chilean city of Arica near the Peruvian border. All have been charged with unlawful association and human trafficking.

"An operation codenamed 'Frontera Norte' has allowed Chile's Criminal Investigations Police (Policía de Investigaciones - PDI) to arrest nine suspected members of a migrant smuggling ring following an investigation supported by INTERPOL and law enforcement across South and Central America," the agency stated.

The investigation has so far identified 267 Chilean minors aged six or under, all children of Haitian migrants, who were smuggled to the US from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.

The investigation was launched in January 2020, when the Chilean police began receiving information on an increasing flow of children of Haitian migrants crossing the Peruvian border.

Chile requested data from Interpol to access information on migrant smuggling and human trafficking possessed by countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Based on that data, Chilean investigators figured out the precise number of children smuggled and, eventually, dismantled the network.