HSI: Migrants were burned, beaten and raped in the cartel hideout

Chihuahua State Police and the Mexican Army arrested four men and two women on June 11 for the alleged torture, kidnapping and sexual assault of 13 migrants who were rescued from a home in the Anapra neighborhood of Juarez, Mexico. (Chihuahua State Police via Department of Homeland Security investigation)

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A Border Patrol encounter with two migrants in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, led to the rescue of 13 Central Americans who were beaten, tortured, extorted and sexually abused in a home in Juarez, Mexico, U.S. authorities say.

The two migrants who turned themselves in to Border Patrol on June 8 said their captors beat and burned them in various parts of their bodies. They also told border officials that they were released after their families paid a ransom in addition to the smuggling fees already collected.

Homeland Security Investigations agents in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Juarez, Mexico, worked with Mexican authorities to find the house, which is operated by an unnamed transnational criminal organization. The joint investigation led to Mexican authorities rescuing 13 Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans from the hideout in the Anapra neighborhood of Juarez, which is just south of the border wall near Sunland Park, New Mexico.

The Central Americans rescued from the house had burns, broken ribs, strangulation marks and bruises from beatings. Further investigation revealed that female migrants were victims of sexual assault. The migrants were malnourished and forced to drink water from a toilet, HSI said.

Among the migrants were two minors, and four of them were so seriously injured that they had to be hospitalized, the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office said.

Based on information from the HSI, Chihuahua State Police and Mexican soldiers arrested four male and two female suspects for kidnapping, sexual assault, drug and weapons offenses in the Anapra/Barrio Alto area. Mexican authorities identified them as Jesus Tomas CS, 24, Oswaldo PM, 19, Lilia Estefani CP, 22, and Diana Michell SV, 20. The other two arrested were later found to be minors.

The suspects are said to have been in possession of a .45 pistol, a 9 mm pistol and an unknown amount of marijuana.

Further investigations revealed that the kidnappers allegedly murdered two migrants in the house. According to HSI, Mexican authorities are trying to find the two bodies.

“This investigation is a prime example of Homeland Security Investigations’ tireless commitment to identifying transnational criminal organizations and holding them accountable for committing heinous and gruesome crimes,” said Jason T. Stevens, HSI’s assistant special agent in charge in El Paso. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners – on both sides of the border – so that together we can harness the full power of our governments to protect victims of crime and bring perpetrators to justice.”

Border officials describe Anapra as a staging area for transnational criminal organizations that smuggle foreign nationals across the border to avoid capture in the U.S. At least two migrant hideouts in New Mexico are linked to a group called La Empresa, which Mexican authorities know is active in Anapra.

Informed sources told Border Report that the group is suspected of being linked to the kidnapping and mistreatment of the Central Americans.