A joint international operation between agents with U.S. ICE Homeland Security Investigations and Colombia’s National Police led to the arrest of five members of a cartel-connected human smuggling network. The cartel reportedly moved hundreds of migrants into the U.S. under the guise of a travel agency and abused the U.S. asylum system.
Colombia’s Director of Criminal Investigations, Elver Vicente Alfonso Sanabria, announced the takedown, which they dubbed Operation Thunder II, revealing a series of raids in the country. The group had been active since 2022. During that period, the cartel successfully moved at least 300 migrants into the United States before the takedown.
Credit: Colombian National Police
According to Alfonso, the group posed as a travel agency, selling travel packages to Mexico for $3,000 to $4,500 USD. Once the migrants were in Mexico, they would then move them to the U.S. southern border, where they would cross illegally and then smuggle them to their final destination.
Credit: Colombian National Police
“In the event that they were intercepted or detained by U.S. authorities, they were instructed to file political asylum applications based on false allegations regarding supposed threats attributed to organized armed groups in Colombia,” Alfonso said.
Colombian authorities did not reveal which Mexican cartel the smuggling group had to work with in order to get the migrants into the United States. However, as Breitbart Texas revealed, human smuggling became one of the largest revenue streams for drug cartels during the Binden Border Crisis. Drug cartels would collect a fee from migrants or human smuggling networks for the right to cross into the U.S. through their territories.
Homeland Security Investigations is a law enforcement agency under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.