Mexico migration officials suspected of trafficking Chinese | Herald Sun Looks like they swept in and busted everyone working in T2 during yesterday's day-shift. Pax were left waiting while the agents were led off in handcuffs. The fact that they arrested everyone means they didn't do much of an investigation beforehand. If they actually want to bust the mafia they will have to do undercover work and phone tapping.
Didn't we find 50 or 60 Chinese a few years ago hinding out in the airport? And didn't some bad guy INM guy end up dead as a result? Someone will take the fall for this as it is not a one shot deal gone wrong. 500,000 illegal immigrants annually into Mexico. Now isn't that some irony.
A few years ago AFI busted some INM agents at the Cancun Airport. It was a sweep also, they took everyone working in T2 that shift. I think there were 80 or so Chinese immigrants there who were, apparently, about to be allowed into Mexico without proper inspection. In that case AFI busted INM before a crime was committed, if they'd waited until the Chinese WERE in without inspection there would have been a crime. But they busted everyone before there was a crime. They held those people for 3 months before they sorted out that there was no crime. It was a huge waste of taxpayer money. Lots of show, lots of inconvenience, big hassle, and no net positive for the country in the end. The difference between this time and last time is that this time it looks like there actually was a crime. These Chinese were, apparently, allowed into Mexico without inspection (with false docs) here in Cancun and were caught in Guadalajara. This time authorities were more thorough from what, I gather. I understand that this time they even took the janitors who were there cleaning. And it sounds like they took some other folks who could not possibly have been involved in allowing those Chinese in. I'm sure the authorities will sort out who was where when, and who knew what. But how long will they hold them this time? The policy seems to be to arrest everyone in sight and figure out which ones are guilty later. That's instead of actual investigative work which could have actually identified those guilty before an arrest. I'm all for the Mexican government cleaning up the corruption. But it would be nice to see some common sense go into the process. These brute force tactics do not work, obviously.
Sometimes, particularly where you are operating under a system of laws that does not provide the kind of personal guarantees that we gringos expect as our rights, or under a military or quasi-military code of justice, a sweep can be an attractive choice because at some point in an investigation you may ask the wrong person the wrong question and reveal your interest to the enterprise at large, thereby blowing yourself out of the water. Provided that a mechanism is in place to rapidly sort the goodies from the baddies, there's not a lot to criticize, at least from the investigative side. Being detained for three months, on the other hand, is not a desirable consequence for either side.
Mixz1 - You know that I respect your insight. The fact that think a sweep could make sense in this situation gives me even less faith in the system than I had before. Without a real investigation that gathers strong evidence against the ringleaders there's zero possibility that arrests will root out the real corruption. Meanwhile the janitors, who make pennies a day, can't feed their kids from jail. This is pathetic.
I imagine that the real "ringleaders" are much higher on the food chain than the agents stationed at the airport. While I applaud the (appearance of) attempts to combat official corruption, I can understand Rivergirl's point that the "arrest everybody" technique has its draw backs and can be a real hardship for the families who have loved ones caught up in it unjustly. I think that more attention should be paid to the police forces and elected officials who are involved in the more violent and larger scale criminal activities.
Well I don't know how much larger scale you can get than a worldwide network of human smugglers. And from what I've read in the papers there are strong ties between the human traffickers and the drug smugglers in Mexico. There is a lot of money in moving people, obviously.
Don't get me wrong. It is pathetic, particularly when the absolute innocents like the janitors get swept up (no pun intended). Nevertheless, did the janitors provide a dumpster for people to hide in? Did they wheel it by the security people? Can you plant surveillance without it being discovered? Can you interview Party A with out it leaking to Party B? Yes, the system here is pitiful. I'm just trying to demonstrate what a system with limited resources, and that includes intellectual and moral resources, may resort to. You and I have no argument here.
I'm pretty sure there's no hiding needed. The agents either check a passport or they don't. But who's to know some guy walking around in the airport was just allowed into Mexico without inspection? Only those who let him in. Or someone who checks his docs, like an INM agent. Once someone being smuggled walks out of the passport control area they look just like everyone else. I do understand your point about investigations. Still I think a lot could be done, though I don't think it will be done. It's too bad, there's so much political posturing here about cleaning up corruption and yet there's virtually no chance that the Gov't's methods will clean up anything.