Written by By David Mitchell, CNN
Border police in the state of Veracruz have found more than 600 undocumented migrants hidden in trailers, according to local media.
The bags were meant to contain food and water for the migrants but they were not full, the chief of the state’s Border Patrol authority, Salvador Peza, said at a press conference, according to an account in Milenio.
The migrants are believed to be Central Americans, Peza said. He declined to reveal further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
One individual is suspected of providing false documents to passengers and the case has been forwarded to the Interpol agency for further investigation, Peza said.
The interior of a Guatemala-bound cargo truck, allegedly carrying migrants, lies on the platform of the platform at the Pajaritos immigration crossing on the Mexico – Guatemala border in San Luis Potosi State, Mexico, on May 7, 2019. (By Edgard Garrido/Reuters)
In recent years, Mexico has made efforts to open its porous southern border. But the laws protecting people seeking asylum in Mexico are only loosely enforced.
Veracruz is one of several Mexican states with issues related to organized crime. Drug smuggling syndicates are active in the peninsula.
In February, police arrested four members of a recently formed cartel who were allegedly smuggling drugs into Mexico.
Earlier that month, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office arrested 34 members of another criminal syndicate accused of killing and robbing two people in Arizona last November.
Meanwhile, in March, a 12-year-old Guatemalan boy drowned after being discovered in a prison laundry basket in the town of Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
The drowning followed the disappearance of the body of five girls in January in the mountainous area of Dos Palmas in the border state of Tamaulipas, according to the National Autonomous University of Mexico.