During a joint interagency operation conducted by units of the Colombian Navy's Unified operation Group for Personal Freedom (GAULA ), troops of the National Army, and officials of the Attorney General's Office, 16 migrants were recovered; they were being guarded by two individuals, who were allegedly members of the Armed Group GAO Clan del Golfo.
The operation was carried out in the sector known as Gamboa, in the Municipality six of Buenaventura, approximately 19 km of the centre of the city, where the troops of the Military Forces, accompanied by the office of the Prosecutor General of the Nation, came to enforce a search warrant for the alleged crime of smuggling of migrants in a house that was being used to hide migrants. Upon arrival, a man and a woman, guarding the house, tried to flee, but were arrested within minutes.
After conducting a search on the house that was guarded by the arrested individuals, 16 migrants were found by troops inside, including three minors, from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, who were apparently victims of an illegal migrant trafficking network that commits crimes in the Colombian Pacific and is controlled by the GAO Clan del Golfo. Subsequently, the 16 recovered migrants were put into custody of Migración Colombia.
The individuals arrested, a vehicle, and nearly eight million Colombian pesos in cash found during the operation, were put into custody of the authorities.
It is important to note that migrants are victims of trafficking networks, which have no regard for the safety of personnel transported; most of the cases migrants are subject to treatments against human rights, crammed into houses without the basic services, and they are required to board ships with overweight and without safety measures; they are often abandoned to their fortune when there's a setback or are scammed by the so-called coyotes, who are in charge of the transportation of illegal migrants.
Source: press-Colombian Navy
