The El Salvador-based Joint Border Intelligence Group (GCIF) recently confirmed the presence of criminal offenders in the latest series of United States-bound migrant caravans from Central America.
GCIF spokesman Gissell Perez Artiga explained migrants with criminal backgrounds from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala infiltrated the migrant caravans to evade arrest from their home country and to commit further crimes in Mexico and the United States.
Perez Artiga said the criminals identified at the borders of Guatemala, Honduras, and the U.S. posed as regular migrants to continue traveling north.
GCIF intelligence revealed many of the criminal migrants were wanted for homicide, kidnapping, extortion, and terrorism. Some felons were known members of the transnational gangs of MS-13 and 18th Street.
Similarly, last month, Mexican authorities announced the formation of the U.S.-bound ‘Devil’s Caravan’. The namesake originated from information that human smugglers and other offenders composed a sizeable number of the Central American migrant caravan.
From 2018 to present, 24 migrant caravans departed from the Northern Triangle, with an estimated 20,000 Central American migrants.
The GCIF representative revealed that migrant caravans have ties to organized crime. The use of social media applications has made it easier for organized crime leaders to spread the news of caravans forming.