Bondi widens the working group targeting the trafficking of human beings and smuggling cartels

The Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the expansion of the joint operational force Alpha (JTFA), an initiative aimed at thwarting transnational criminal organizations and the cartels that make fuel trafficking and smuggling.

During a press conference in Tampa, Florida on Thursday, Bondi warned that “the cost of human smuggling is enormous” and that fatal networks “make people kill”.

She then described JTFA as a key weapon of war against organized smuggling networks, often led by cartels and “coyotes” who take advantage of migrants trying to cross the borders.

“We are investigating and continuing their crimes more aggressively. And the joint approach Alpha is the tip of the spear,” she added.

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Pam Bondi announces the expansion of the joint operational force Alpha to fight against the trafficking of human beings and smuggling by cartels on the American borders. (AP)

“These operations make people kill,” said Bondi. “The cost of human smuggling is enormous. So many families die.”

The Attorney General continued to detail how a smuggling ring trained its customers, including children who came to airports alone and were put on planes to connect flights.

“They billed up to $ 40,000 per victim,” she said. “They used Zelle to transfer more than $ 7 million during this program, and I think they have experienced cash benefit from more than 18 million.”

Bondi told journalists that since President Donald Trump had taken office, the working group had already charged 56 accused linked to the smuggling of conspiracies.

She underlined a case involving what she called a “monster” who tried to transport migrants through the border of the United States-Canada, causing deaths by exhibition.

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The soldiers patrolled the streets of Aguililla, Michoacán State, Mexico, March 11, 2022, after a violent activity of Cartel. (Getty Images)

Other Texas officials from the press event have described specific cases highlighting the cruelty of smuggling operations.

American lawyer Justin R. Simmons from the western district of Texas said that children as young as 3 had undergone poisoning after traffickers gave them drug producers to keep them calm and “compliant throughout the process”.

“Cartels see children like cocaine,” he said, describing how children are treated as consumables in $ 1 billion.

American lawyer Nicholas J. Ganjei, South Texas District, added the cartels “Do not care if you or your children have access to food, water or even to breathe. They don’t care if you live or die.”

Launched in June 2021 under the Attorney General Merrick Garland, the JTFA was created to target the most prolific human trading and human trafficking networks in Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador and Honduras.

The American prosecutor General Pam Bondi, on the left, listens to the American prosecutor of the western district of Texas Justin Simmons, during a press conference on border security and human smuggling on Thursday in Tampa, Florida. (Pool / Fox News)

The working group has since developed to cover operations in Panama, Colombia and now Northern and Maritime US Borders.

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JTFA was credited with more than 300 arrests, more than 240 convictions and more than 170 results of determining the sentence, while entering millions of illicit profits, vehicles, weapons and goods from smuggling organizations.