The Mexican government announced on Friday that more than 2,000 migrants were kidnapped by smuggling gangs and drug cartels in 2022. In a recent successful operation, authorities located and rescued 10 abducted Colombians in northern Mexico.
The country's national immigration agency stated that a total of 2,115 migrants from various nationalities were freed from gangs involved in kidnapping activities.
Criminal organizations in Mexico are increasingly demanding fees from migrants to facilitate their passage through the country, only to later abduct them for ransom. There has been a series of mass abductions targeting migrants in Mexico in recent months.
Prosecutors in the northern state of Sonora reported on Friday that they had located the 10 missing Colombians who disappeared in the border city of San Luis Rio Colorado earlier in the week.
The abducted Colombians were found in good condition at a gas station. According to a relative of one of the victims, the kidnappers contacted their families in the United States, demanding thousands of dollars for their release.
This incident follows a similar case where Ecuador had previously reported that 30 Ecuadorians were abducted in Sonora. When authorities arrived at the safehouse where the victims were being held in another border town, they discovered a larger number of individuals than expected. A total of 43 Ecuadorians and 20 other kidnapped migrants were found at the location.
This pattern of investigations being triggered by reports of a few missing migrants leading to the discovery of numerous additional victims has become common in recent months.
For example, in April, a reported kidnapping of approximately 20 people in the state of San Luis Potosí resulted in a large-scale search operation, which not only led to the rescue of the initial 20 migrants but also uncovered around 80 more individuals being held against their will, likely by the same criminal group.
