Migrant smuggling in Mexico: interview with a narco

CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO —
In a five-part series this week on CTVNews.ca and CTV National News at 11, W5 Investigative Unit Managing Editor and Senior Correspondent Avery Haines follows the harrowing journeys of migrants who risk their lives crossing the Darien Gap and atop Mexico’s infamous ‘Train’ to drive. of death’. In this fourth episode, Haines is in Juarez, speaking with one of the human smugglers known as “coyotes.”

I have interviewed several cartels over the years, from high-ranking drug bosses to low-ranking cartels sicariosor executioners.

There were heartbreaking moments every time.

In Cancun for the W5 documentary ‘Narco Riviera’, I tried not to show my panic when my interview with a Sinaloa drug boss was interrupted by a knock on the door of the narco ‘safe house’.

For Narco Avocado, I interviewed Mexico’s most ruthless cartel, Jalisco New Generation (CJNG), in an avocado orchard deep in their territory.

And for last season’s documentary on the Darien Gap, the interview with the Colombian Gulf Clan Cartel shed new light on their lucrative human smuggling activities.

For my latest investigation, “Narco Jungle: The Death Train,” I convinced a human smuggler to talk to me about the fees they charge migrants to get them across the border. He tried to portray himself as a humanitarian who helps migrants achieve their “American dream.” He’s not.

Cartels endanger migrants at every stage of their journey with kidnappings, torture and extortion.

InSight Crime, an organization that investigates organized crime organizations in Mexico and South America, estimates that there are “several hundred crime groups” operating across Mexico, many of which supplement their core drug trafficking business with migrant smuggling.

Migrants we interviewed in Mexico described being “taxed” as they made their way through various cartel areas.

Those who pay receive colored wristbands and are allowed to travel around their region. Those without money have shared stories of being incarcerated and forced to contact relatives or friends to pay the cartel costs.

The U.S. Homeland Security Committee estimates that human trafficking and smuggling is a $13 billion a year industry for the cartels.

Watch the full documentary “Narco Jungle: The Death Train” on Avery Haines Investigates, Saturday, October 5 at 7pm on CTV