Mexican drug cartels have allegedly found a new way to profit by joining the human trafficking trade. According to a Daily Mail investigation, drug cartels like Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas are increasing the number of human bodies they traffic across the United States’ southern border because they realize people are now “worth more than dope.”
The opportunity presented itself after the Biden administration relaxed border policies that separated children from their families and booted asylum seekers from the country. Retired Captain Jaeson Jones from the Texas Department of Public Safety believes that the Mexican drug cartels control everything on both sides of the border and have sent spies, known as “halcones” or hawks, to watch everything that occurs. Jones also claims that cartels are a major threat to safety at the border.
Mexican citizens crossing the river are reportedly worth $2,500 while Venezuelan, Guatemalan, or Honduran migrants pay $3,000. The price increases to $5,000 for Chinese migrants and to $9,000 for Middle Eastern or Russian migrants. Cartels are apparently using unaccompanied minors at the border as decoys while single adults, criminals, and drugs can come over elsewhere.
Donald Trump’s administration had a “Remain in Mexico” policy that forced migrants to the nearest port of entry where they had to apply for asylum in Mexico. However, the number of migrants greatly increased during the final months of the Trump presidency.
In January 2021, the number of migrants seeking a better life at the border had doubled from the same numbers in January 2020. In February, during the first full month of the Biden administration, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency encountered 100,441 migrants seeking asylum or a better life across the border in America.
The CBP confirmed the sharp increase in numbers, while an anonymous source close to the border told the Daily Mail, “The cartels have realized that under Biden, there is serious money to be made from people trafficking without any of the distribution issues you face with narcotics. People are the new dope.”
Source: AWM
