165 Rescued From Clutches Of Mexican Gang: Immigrants Held Hostage Near U.S. Border

A group of 165 would-be immigrants to the United States have been rescued by Mexican soldiers after being held captive by a criminal group in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. 

The victims were largely from Central America, mainly from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. There were also 14 people that were coming from Mexico, as well as one lone Indian national.

Their plan was to cross the border by enlisting the help of human traffickers who offered to take them across the border illegally. Though everything seemed fine at first, the prospective migrants soon found that they had been duped by the very men they thought were trying to help them.

"Everything indicates that these migrants were contacted by human traffickers ... and these criminals handed them over to criminal gangs instead of taking them to the border," Interior Ministry spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said. "They were found kidnapped by an armed individual and held against their will in precarious, dirty, overcrowded conditions."

Those unfortunate migrants were held against their will for several weeks until an anonymous tip finally sent soldiers to investigate the house where they were being held in the city of Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. That tip noted suspicious-looking men with weapons on the property.

"The victims said that they had the intention of entering the United States of America, but they were held against their will while a suspected criminal group contacted their families by phone and demanded different sums of money that were sent to their kidnappers," Sanchez said.

Unfortunately, such incidents have become all-too common in Mexico over the years. While the drug trade is still strong in the region, human trafficking has also picked up immensely, and those partaking in organized crime are taking advantage of the immigrants' desperation whenever they can.

According to CNN, "Amnesty International has said that immigrants in Mexico 'face a variety of serious abuses from organized criminal gangs, including kidnappings, threats, and assaults.'"

Among the captive migrants were two pregnant women and twenty children. So far the police have already made one arrest, that of 20-year-old Juan Cortez Arrez, and there may be more, pending an investigation.