The desperation to migrate to the first world countries is a niche market for the so-called “coyotes”, criminal groups that charge up to 30 million pesos for a passport like those offered by a band dismantled this week by the Colombian authorities.
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According to the authorities, the band allegedly falsified in 17 cases bank statements, income statements and other documents co-opting notary officials, registrars and offices of Migration Colombia.
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The Prosecutor General and Migration Colombia on Thursday revealed the capture of 14 people accused of processing through deception papers for citizens of China, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico and Ecuador to receive Colombian nationality or documents to travel to the United States.
“The ‘coyotes’ take advantage of the need and illusions of people who migrate to treat them as a commodity,” a spokesperson for Migration Colombia told Efe.
According to the authorities, the band allegedly falsified in 17 cases bank statements, income statements and other documents co-opting notary officials, registrars and offices of Migration Colombia to prove to the authorities the necessary requirements for the papers.
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The alleged coordinator of the group is a former official of the missing Administrative Department of Security (DAS), a former agency responsible for police intelligence, which organized the obtaining of documentation.
They also arrested a Colombian Migration official assigned to the Ibagué office, Tolima, in the center of the country, who had just resigned his position last December.
The detainee apparently used his position to review the information systems that the illegal network needed and advanced in administrative procedures to “legalize” the situation of foreigners and issue safe-conduct without complying with the requirements of law, as detailed Migration Colombia in a statement.
#ATTENTION 13 captured by # Prosecutor’s Office @MigracionCol Y @COL_EJERCITO, presumed members of the network that would irregularly process migrants nationalities, would respond for migrant trafficking, false document, bribery, procedural fraud and concert to commit crimes. pic.twitter.com/YbFUc5ecML
– Prosecutor’s Office Colombia (@FiscaliaCol) February 6, 2020
In this way, the band obtained ID cards and civil records; safe-stay passages and visas for spouses, workers or socio-owners, as well as legitimate passports so that migrants could arrive in the United States with false Colombian identities.
Colombia, transit country
Due to its geographical location, in the northwest corner of South America, and with coasts on the Atlantic and the Pacific, Colombia has become a must-have scale for those who want to reach the United States several years ago without having the necessary documents.
It is common for authorities to detain or rescue Asian citizens, mainly from countries such as China, Nepal or Bangladesh; Africans from Congo or Cameroon, and Latin Americans, especially from Cuba and Haiti, who try to cross the difficult border with Panama to continue traveling by land to Central America and finally to the United States.
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This tour includes the passage of the Darien Plug, a thick jungle on the border of Colombia and Panama, where many lose their lives or there are those who opt for the sea route on risky trips in precarious boats, usually at night and without life jackets for not be detected, which are launched into the Caribbean Sea in the Colombian region of Urabá.
According to the spokesman of the entity, “need and despair” moves migrants to get money to obtain false documents, “asking for loans from relatives (…) or in other cases they only have to resort to other criminal groups that they lend them the sum in exchange for favors. “
“There are many profiles of migrants, people who do not have a weight. In these cases, the ‘coyotes’ offer them to pay for their documents in exchange for illegal goods such as drugs, or weapons, crossing the border at that time the smuggling of migrants it becomes human trafficking, “he explained to Efe.
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2020-02-06T19: 48: 00-05: 00
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2020-02-06T19: 48: 00-05: 00
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National
Colombian prosecutor dismantles network that falsified passports to go to the US
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