Human trafficking ring busted in joint operation

A HUMAN TRAFFICKING  network  with transfer centers in Costa del Este and Panama City has been dismantled after a joint Central America police operation   leading to the arrest of 25 people.

The ring smuggled people to the United States and Canada.

The operations were carried out in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Panama.

Organized Crime Prosecutor Rafael Baloyes said that, in Panama the network operated from  an apartment of the Lacosta Tower building in Costa del Este, where the ringleaders of the criminal network were arrested.

Baloyes said  that there were also raids in the La Cigarra hostel in Santa Ana, and in Parque Lefevre, where five other people were arrested.

Migrants remained in the hostel, without being able to leave, until they were taken to the Albrook terminal to be moved to Chiriqui and then to Costa Rica.

At the same time it was reported that seven other people are under investigation to clarify their relationship with the criminal network.

The traffickers were apparently paid $1,500 to help people cross through Panama.

Those arrested included two Colombians who were identified as the ringleaders of the network. The migrants mostly came from North Africa, but also included people from Asia, including India who had arrived on the American continent via Peru, and were escorted  to the Panama border. The fate of migrants who have paid their “fees” and  moved from Panama en route to the United States, is unknown.