Migrants were held against their will, beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and extorted for additional smuggling fees
EL PASO, Texas — Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents assigned to Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in coordination with Mexican authorities, developed information that led to the June 11 rescue of 13 migrants forcibly held against their will in a stash house where they were beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and extorted for additional smuggling fees by members of a transnational criminal organization.
HSI special agents assigned to Las Cruces and the attaché’s office in Ciudad Juarez developed information they shared with the Chihuahua State Police and the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense that assisted in locating the stash house in the Mexican town of Anapra, in the state of Chihuahua, and the arrests of six Mexican nationals — four men and two women — for kidnapping, assault, sexual assault, weapons and drug charges.
On June 8, two nondocumented noncitizens previously held hostage by members of the transnational criminal organization entered the United States illegally and turned themselves over to U.S. Border Patrol agents in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, as instructed by their captors. They described to agents how they had been severely beaten and burned on various parts of their bodies. They also explained that the kidnappers let them go because their families paid a ransom for their release.
The rescued noncitizens, who were from Guatemala and Honduras, suffered bruising from beatings, burns, broken ribs and ligature marks. Additionally, preliminary investigative efforts revealed that some of the women migrants were sexually assaulted. The migrants were poorly fed and forced to drink water from the toilet. Further information revealed that the smugglers may have murdered two migrants at the stash house. Mexican authorities are continuing to investigate and attempting to locate the bodies of the two migrants.
“This investigation is a prime example of Homeland Security Investigations’ unwavering commitment to identifying and holding transnational criminal organizations accountable for perpetrating vile and horrific crimes,” said HSI El Paso acting Special Agent in Charge Jason T. Stevens. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners on both sides of the border so that together, we can leverage the full force of our governments to protect victims of crime and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
About HSI
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. HSI’s workforce consists of over 10,000 employees, assigned to 235 offices within the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI's international presence represents the Department of Homeland Security’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.