Costa Rica And Panama Dismantle Migrant Trafficking Ring

A joint operation between Costa Rican and Panamanian authorities resulted in the arrest of 46 people and the dismantling of a migrant trafficking ring that shipped African, Asian and Cubans towards the US

San Jos, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Jul, 2019 ) :A joint operation between Costa Rican and Panamanian authorities resulted in the arrest of 46 people and the dismantling of a migrant trafficking ring that shipped African, Asian and Cubans towards the US.

Migrants paid between $7,000 and $21,000 to the gang, lead by a Nicaraguan woman known as Mama Africa.

In Costa Rica, 35 raids resulted in 36 people being arrested, Costa Rica's migration police director Stephen Madden said.

One of those detained was a health ministry official.

"This is one of the biggest operations we've carried out. We've dismantled a gang dedicated to trafficking migrants," said Raquel Vargas, Costa Rica's migration director.

Vargas spoke to reporters in La Cruz, a town on the northern border with Nicaragua where Mama Africa, whose surname was given as Lopez Martinez, was arrested.

Ten people were arrested in Panama, the public prosecutor's office said on Twitter.

"This organization used tourist visas to traffic people," said the public prosecutor's office.

Madden said there was evidence that 249 people had been transported to blind spots at Costa Rica's border with Nicaragua from where they would continue towards the United States.

A wider network of smugglers moved African and Asian migrants who had arrived in Europe to South American countries such Peru, Ecuador and Brazil.

From where they would begin the long journey by land through Colombia, Central America and Mexico, in the hope of reaching the United States.

"They use a person's vulnerability to subject them to trafficking, forcing the migrant to hide and flee, acting outside the law," said Vargas.