2023-11-09 07:01:00
Behind an agency with a gringo name, Colombian Creoles were hiding, promising safe entry to the United States. They called themselves “Los Hunters”, hunters in Spanish, a migrant trafficking network that falsified documents to process American visas and that fell before the authorities after a year of investigations.
This was made evident by the Prosecutor’s Office, which in a joint action with United States authorities, managed to capture three possible articulators of the criminal network accused of altering information so that appointments at the embassy were faster and the delivery of documents. much more effective. With that certainty, illegal migrants entered Mexico and then reached the United States, in less than a day and without any risk.
Although they had the plan structured from start to finish, if in any case and for some reason the clients were denied an American visa, then “The Hunters” had another method of entry to that country already prepared, although not as reliable.
According to Hugo Tovar, specialized director against Human Rights Violations, when the permits were denied, “the organization would have managed the irregular transfer of migrants to Tijuana (Mexico), where they were abandoned at the mercy of the so-called ‘coyotes’, who were “They would be in charge of taking them to the other side of the border, in the midst of dangers and all kinds of humiliation.”
In order to capture them, the authorities undertook a hunt lasting more than a year in which they intercepted calls, posed as potential clients and tracked them down until they collected enough evidence to charge them with the crimes of migrant smuggling, illicit enrichment and false information. private document.
“According to the investigation of more than a year, the organization offered services for modifying information in forms for the processing of the American visa and the advance of the consular interview, the irregular passage of migrants to the United States through the border with Mexico and obtaining residency for people in that country,” explained the Brigadier General. José Luis Ramírez Hinestroza, director of Criminal Investigation and INTERPOL.
They sent migrants to the US
From Bogotá, Maiker Enrique Villa and his romantic partner, Luz Dary León, prepared everything for the visa process in an irregular manner. So much so that they had ready the speech that each illegal traveler had to recite before the American officials for the procedure to be successful. While they were learning the dialogue, Maiker and Luz Dary were pulling all the strings to support the recital with altered documents.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the evidence shows that ‘The Hunters’ allegedly falsified medical records and other documents so that migrants would come to request visas to the United States, pretending that they suffered from high-cost or so-called orphan diseases; and thus justify the urgency of traveling to that country to receive medical treatment.
“From Bogotá they were in charge of requesting emergency appointments with the consulate with false information about serious illnesses and medical procedures, managing to advance the appointments scheduled for 2025 in less than 15 days,” highlighted Brigadier General Ramírez.
And if these medical documents were not enough for the visa process, then the criminal organization had already prepared the next step, which included the delivery of more documentation, also altered.
Apparently, “The Hunters” also obtained bank statements and financial certifications to prove that the applicants had the necessary financial capacity to pay for the medications and procedures that would be performed on them in that country. With the facade complete, the officials of the United States embassy in Colombia approved the visas, which for the accusing body was a clear example of making them fall into a mistake.
Contact with clients
The alleged leader of the organization took advantage of his exotic name to attract clients and make the story credible. Maiker posed as an official from the embassy in Bogotá. Although he has a long criminal record in the United States for drug trafficking, his façade helped him not arouse suspicion.
Then the contact passed to Luz Dary, his romantic partner, who was in charge of making all the preparations and then celebrating if the business was successful.
“I’m happier. I got a deal from passing some people through Mexico. I told one who was the one who was getting the visas and he told me: I’m the one who handles that and he fixed everything for me in five minutes. The gentlemen arrived today and I told them, look, they’ve already arrived. “I figured everything out the same day and they picked them up, organized them, they spent Monday and the three of them are already in the United States,” Luz Dary is heard in a call intercepted by the Prosecutor’s Office. On the other end of the phone, a female voice congratulates her and asks how much they paid her. To which Luz Dary responds enthusiastically: “30 million pesos.”
Meanwhile, in Don Matías, Antioquia, they had another connection. Clara de las Mercedes Yépez, apparently, was another of the organizers of the criminal gang. Her role was allegedly to recruit migrants and prepare them to bypass the authorities. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Clara explained to them that they had to pretend to be young religious missionaries and if they asked more than necessary then they had to say that they were refugees who suffered discrimination, persecution and violence in Colombia. The idea was to trick officials into achieving his American dream.
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