A gang that illegally brought in migrants from Venezuela was dismantled in Colombia

• The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office indicated that those arrested were operating in a house located in Villa del Rosario

The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that it has dismantled a gang that was engaged in illegally smuggling migrants from Venezuela, as well as trafficking contraband goods.

According to information published on the agency’s website on September 18, among those arrested are 10 members of the Colombian National Police and nine other civilians.

The detainees were charged with individual responsibility for the crimes of migrant trafficking, drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit crimes, bribery, bribery by giving or offering, aiding and abetting smuggling, and procedural fraud.

Photo: EFE

Mode of operation

The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office reported that it maintains records that the gang brought in Venezuelan migrants since August 2023 with the purpose of transporting them to Ipiales and Necoclí.

In addition, the agency determined that the criminal group used a property in the historic center of Villa del Rosario, in the North of Santander (Colombia), where the crimes were allegedly structured.

It was learned that the arrests were carried out by the National Police in Villavicencio and were carried out in the Colombian municipalities of Cúcuta and El Zulia.

Venezuelan migrants

In June 2024, R4V updated the number of Venezuelan migrants in the world and those in countries on the American continent.

The organization reported that 7.77 million Venezuelans have emigrated. Of that total, 6.59 million are in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

These figures correspond to the total number of Venezuelan migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in host countries assessed by the R4V platform. The organization’s report clarifies that this figure is not necessarily accepted by the United Nations (UN).

Since the update published in November 2023, the list has seen an increase of 51,915 new migrants.

Photo: EFE

Another arrest for trafficking Venezuelan migrants

Another arrest for trafficking of Venezuelan migrants was recorded on August 8, 2024, when 13 people were arrested for human trafficking, mostly of Venezuelan and Chinese nationality on a VIP route in the Darien jungle, between Colombia and Panama.

The Panamanian Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that the arrests were carried out in raids in the province of Darien, where more than 216,000 travelers bound for the United States have arrived this year after crossing the jungle.

The first prosecutor against Organized Crime, Emeldo Márquez, told reporters that the arrests occurred within the framework of the so-called Operation Millionaire, to “dismantle an organization dedicated to the illicit trafficking of migrants of various nationalities.”

He said that “the vast majority” of those arrested have “the role of moving people through different points of Darien to be able to take them to other sectors and later take them out of Panamanian territory,” which has Costa Rica as its northern border.

This organization uses what “has been called by some people who use it, in this case foreigners, as a VIP route (from the acronym in English Very Important Person) because of the facilities it offers them in moving faster than the route used by the rest of the migrants,” explained the prosecutor.

This “VIP route” begins in the Colombian Gulf of Urabá and includes the towns of Necoclí, Capitana, Carreto, Caledomoa, Canaán Membrillo or Zapallal, already in Panama, according to the local network. TVN.

Migrants would pay between $1,500 and $3,000 to use it, according to the same source.

Since the new administration of President José Raúl Mulino began on July 1, several measures have been taken to try to reduce the flow of migrants through Darién, which reached more than 520,000 in 2023, an unprecedented figure.

Among the measures taken is the progressive fencing off of some 4.7 kilometres of the jungle, which is 266 kilometres long, with “perimeter barriers” (barbed wire fences), to “channel” the flow into a “humanitarian corridor”.

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