Smuggled to America: Human Cargo

it may look like a picturesque setting for a calm serene day on the river but this is one of the busiest illegal trafficking routes in the world day and night makeshift rafts cross the river border between Guatemala and Mexico it never stops [Music] they bring cargo loads of everything out food weapons and drugs but also these days the most precious and fought over cargo of all humans there's a steady stream of seemingly most are heading north for the United States the majority are escaping violent South and Central American countries but there is now a new previously unthought-of an unexpected phenomena thousands upon thousands coming from around the world all traffic by ruthless multinational people smuggling syndicate who use drug cartels and crime gangs to protect a business worth millions every week [Music] it's a chilly misty morning in Guatemala the latest group of travelers hoping to get to Mexico and the United States gather at a secret location the group is escaping the gang violence and poverty of Nicaragua El Salvador and Honduras or want to make a new start and they believe that this is the best way their journey is fraught with danger they're being smuggled by a crime gang a syndicate with a network throughout South and Central America and stretching right into the United States this unmarked mountain crossing has never been filmed before it's taken months for Sky News to get permission from the traffickers cartel bosses on board our two young girls Daniela is 16 carla is 14 years old I seem unaware how vulnerable they are and how dangerous their trip is although they admit they and their families are concerned are you scared of this trip or the family scared si es nada por que es primera vez que VA ho b familia nikka Alibaba vez mas que voy a salir porque voy a hos por que no se C no puede volver this is what has driven you to move and you're very young so what has driven it now they go missing minutos aqui this is not the name of para comer was in fall telecommunication falta de niro please go you ready videos a little then your guard para para más adelante you to me and say 'christopher kenya pero la fourmi familia quiero here ok then I'm gonna make her be this man is the group's guide all the way to the United States they're called coyotes here's a gang member crucially he has the phone numbers and passwords to get faster dozens of gangs that buy ahead of them there is no guarantee any of them will be safe CSS kucik in Mexico muy peligroso pero CASL trata con un hoyo de que tenga contactos en todo Mexico muy problema porque el coyote saber reportando con la mafia UDC alpha Doral McGraw see oh no no se todo classes delincuente hablando con ellos para pagando viaje de cada immigrant a de Guatemala para todos Unidos Sally carro porque si dinero low Bhangra partying van pagando todo para que no the simple fact is that almost all people attempting this journey are touched by violent crime in some form or other robbery and assault are almost guaranteed and the abduction of young girls and their subsequent imprisonment in brothels is so common that the crimes aren't even investigated [Music] almost all of the girls working the streets and the Mexican border town of tap Achuar where virtually all migrants pass started their professional lives still dreaming of an ordinary life in the United States Karolina is typical she crossed the Mexican border trying to get to the United States within minutes though she was abducted by a man offering her a lift it was the start of a life of prostitution wandering gricean la Frontera de Guatemala con Mexico Philip Romero Khmer pass office lugar you know Sevilla please you may when vmi ito ay que pagar please so hurry man okay lapa Garo al Tracey Claro que pagar Joe I found my solo routine and when you say you were sold you arrived at a building and people basically you were then imprisoned and and you couldn't leave what had happened hasta que pagar el dinero que the via milk a cauliflower and have that have you gone beyond that now you feel better now mask at all leave it leave it economy go miss my equals don't which are like olives forgetting all see who's in soccer adelante learning I just a grande para mula tango you're latina me mama pero mosquito me siento Libra call me or miss sukira when what Rama Hari see no no Nadia Mason I'm Aragon yes yanti no era see [Music] there's just a petula in southern Mexico it's at the center of the trafficking business most new arrivals to Mexico pass through here a myriad of cheap hotels where the travelers await their next move one of the largest of the new travelling communities come from India Pakistan and Bangladesh there are five curry houses on this street below each are paying between 30,000 and 50,000 dollars to the smuggling syndicate the new arrivals get an affectionate hug despite the VIP costs the journey through five or six countries to this point has been horrendous California 19 year old sim Ranjit says he is traumatized by his trip with the smuggling syndicate he was robbed by both the military and the police and in Panama watched as injured travelers were executed and women again routinely raped mafia has been fun lots of weapon like gun sward they kill if man not survive in the jungle we've heard women are attacked quite a lot did that happen the games were they great yeah in my cargo mafia rape every girl who clothes in the jungle the story though is not unusual eight agencies say they've heard it many times before what wasn't so well understood until now is the size and the sophistication of the smuggling operation pammi another Indian on his way to the United States says the trafficking syndicate have operatives in every country on the route of a network of guys to transport the human cargo and can buy off corrupt officials across continents there are some little agents in India and they also have contact in Delhi and their daily people's have contact in like other countries and those are the man who control everything there are 50 to 60 person under them they control them from out of central Latin America I think so that my agent is in Europe that he is controlling in this all these things from here all the agents who organized the smuggling of people from all over the world have developed close working relationships with cartel bosses and their gang members in over half a dozen different countries along the route to the United States but making contact with them is difficult and dangerous [Music] Nogales in northern Mexico is over a thousand miles north of the gathering point for the international travelers in Taba to the border fence stretches out four miles on either side and right through the center of Nogales families split by the fence often meet at weekends to say hello physically they're just inches apart in reality they could be split forever [Music] the ever-present sound in the railway with trains passing across the border is a reminder that legitimate traffic isn't hampered by the fence to the right contacts the illegal traffic isn't he we're traveling to a secret location to meet the people who make the crossing possible they're part of the Sinaloa cartel have asked powerful crime organization they traffic people these days that their business was founded on drugs they take both businesses very seriously so if an armed guard always obviously yeah you can see over here that the store we just draws the call marijuana doesn't stop if you want to see a subtly where I got the success of the printed smuggling operation is founded on the now well-documented but nonetheless staggering efficiency of the drug cartels to move their product be it marijuana cocaine heroin crystal meth of people to its final destination so this is Mexican yes [Music] it's a dangerous business the gang members never stopped checking for suspicious movement outside their so-called warehouse a flat to you and me the business depends on the link between the various groups over vast distances to coordinate the movement of the cargo just as the Indian boys witnessed they say that the they pay their and then they passed from one person to another person to another person or they come all the way through from South America from Central America you part of that I mean you know they're coming yeah you know these people are coming even from a long time before yes because you know like let's say you live in Guatemala right you send me people to here so you call me let me know so no I sent two guys three four five guys okay the people who went across to Mexico and Chula Vista know when the mr. Killa Chiapas so this is different guy you know the they call me you know that the device already so and then to when get to Mexico and the different guy that comes you know he's the people's in Mexico so when you send it to Novalis is later okay so it's really well okay yeah for us seeing how they work is the key we've been given permission to join a smuggling operation it's mostly done on foot it's the last bit of the journey by car very sure they were going to be dropped off and we're going to begin the walk the car she only faces there's two of the guys here are going to be going across the border into the United States all things being equal we have people with us who are going to show us the way and then we'll obviously come back it's the first time they've let Outsiders in and it's ever been filmed onboard a somewhat terrified traveller is preparing to jump they want us to move quickly as the night closes in this is a popular route with competing gangs and they rent access to the border by the hour in the red and white shirt is Pedro a guide known as coyotes wild desert dogs who know the routes to the USA but is it quite easy getting over hedgerow tells me it's not easy as Salinas cameras and Border Patrol's APIs he'll gain near the board and house while we've gone into night shots getting very dark out here and they're very very jumpy they keep checking seeing people how many people of anyone around ice not so much actually the authorities but what other gangs because everyone used these routes and they can't be very very dangerous as a result of that because your staff fighting amongst themselves the boy has paid $5,000 to cross he hopes to change his family's fortunes back home and they stumped up the cash they move forward a quick wave and they're gone the wall a dark line a short distance away so heat sensors on the the fence which is just there which one Allah is going in the positive dissipated as other people we think coming so we've got here they didn't want to skip right next to the fence because do we be seen it's time to go and then we're off another customer in a multi-million dollar business delivered despite appearances this is a lot more sophisticated than simply a case of jumping a fence [Music] it is through here that the cartels move their cargo be it people or drugs the vast deserts and tundra of northern Mexico in the southern United States divide the two countries its inhospitable boiling hot for much of the earth impossible to police and easy to get lost in the 2,000 mile border is for large sections little more than a wire fence with a few bits of old railway line welded together might stop cattle but not much else you gotta be ready to draw and shoot yeah it's like the Wild West it is the Wild West Jim Chilton is a fifth generation rancher in Arizona thousands of smuggled people and tons of drugs are transported across his land every year in fact he blames on the failure of the authorities to stop it essentially the Sinaloa cartel has control this entire area as you notice we haven't run into a single Border Patrol agent that's because they don't come out here they've left this area basically available to the cartel we're in their no-man's land it takes two days to ride across Jim's ranch a large section marks the border between the United States and Mexico and it's exactly because it's so remote and large that the Mexican smuggling cartels use it as their transport hub a hub with its own supervisors and we found them in the treeline an overwatch position it's known as and we sent our drone they aren't happy we're watching their Sinaloa cartel members net armed and we're annoyed that's a clear message go away unexpectedly though two of the gang stock coming down the mountain we don't know why and we don't know if they're armed I got a code how are you cartel Scout your cartel they confirm their Sinaloa members from the cooler can the cartels so what do you think guys here the guys say these are the ones directing people who say there's been 11 over here in the last few days groups or 11 people it's difficult to them I mean this is sort of a crazy thing that we are divided by a piece of barbed wire and it and some railway track cartel scouts say they'll be on the hill for the next few months the matter-of-fact nature of the cartel scouts going about their overwatch business isn't lost on the US border authorities they can't do anything to stop them they know the smuggling of people is incessant and they know that the business while on the face of it helps people achieve their dream of rich in the United States it is in fact lawless exploitative and very often nothing more then it can't these are very unscrupulous people they see whether it's drugs or people as just cargo it's a financial gain for an illicit endeavor and it's very heartbreaking for us to see that we see people put through extreme temperatures we're fortunate enough today that the temperatures mild just a couple of weeks ago with well over a hundred degrees in most of our areas so people are pushed through those areas at the hands of the smugglers they dictate where people are gonna cross and how they're gonna cross and many times more often than not it's a very difficult and daunting task for the average person trying to cross there the average migrant that might be putting their hands and their life and in the hands of a smuggler the sheer numbers of people risking everything even death chasing the dream of a new life in the United States has turned into a global epidemic the trafficking syndicates are promising a cure to endemic poverty and violence in countries around the world are simply profiting from the desire for a better life we know the girls made it to Mexico we were with them but where they are now we don't know we probably never will they could now just be another statistic of trafficking crime you

Channel: Sky News

Views: 24,185

Rating: 4.6330276 out of 5

Keywords: sky news, stuart ramsay, cartel, crime, syndicate, smuggling, human, cargo, coyote, mexico, America, Central America, South America, USA, United States, border, Guatemala, drugs, wall, patrol, armed guard, illegal, Donal Trump, president, special report, Sky News, migrant, immigrant, migrant caravan

Id: VZx3EQBE80A

Length: 21min 29sec (1289 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 24 2018