In the last few hours, the National Police arrested 31 members of a transnational criminal organization dedicated to the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons by judicial order.
The National Police of all Colombians, through the Directorate of Criminal Investigation and INTERPOL (DIJIN), in coordination with the United States Secret Service Agency, the Ecuadorian National Police and the Attorney General’s Office, in the development of the transnational operation "Exoduses", managed to capture 26 members of an international criminal organization dedicated to the smuggling of migrants in the cities of Ipiales and Pasto (Nariño), Cali (Valle del Cauca), Medellín and Turbo (Antioquia), Barranquilla (Atlántico), Cúcuta (Norte de Santander), and in the city of Quito (Ecuador).
Yohannes Elfneh Negussie, alias "Africano", was captured in an unprecedented transnational operation against migrant smuggling involving US, Ecuadorian and Colombian authorities, an Ethiopian citizen who entered Colombia in 2008 through the port of Buenaventura illegally and subsequently obtained refugee status on the grounds of political threats in his country of origin.
“El Africano” had already been captured in 2010 for the crime of smuggling migrants and served a 4-year sentence, for which reason he lost his refugee status and after serving his sentence reorganized a structure dedicated to this same crime in which he coordinated the irregular transit of migrants through Colombian territory, extending its tentacles to the neighboring country of Ecuador and in Colombia in the cities of Ipiales, Cali, Medellín and Cúcuta, where it had coordinators in charge of transport, food and lodging of Cuban, Ecuadorian, African, Hindu migrants, among others.
It was established that "El Africano" is the leader of this criminal network and had direct contact with counterparts in other countries, especially Ecuador, with whom he arranged to send and receive irregular foreigners of different nationalities who wanted to enter the United States without complying with the legal requirements, in addition to this, this individual and his organization would have ties with members of the "Gulf Clan", who were paid between $150 and $200 per migrant to be authorized and protected by them.
This individual is fluent in several languages including Spanish, English, French and Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, which made it easier for him to have contact with migrants of different nationalities in order to coordinate the logistics and illegal travel of migrants through Colombian territory, until arriving in Panama and then travelling to the United States.
During the investigation, a number of judicial police activities were carried out to track down the capture of these individuals, including judicial interviews, technical controls, inspections, selective search in databases, link analysis and analysis of information, that this organization has managed to transport approximately 1,500 customers through Colombian territory, and that through third parties they received the payments from different countries for values ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 US dollars for each migrant, in that sense the criminal organization would have collected more than 24 billion pesos.
Through technical controls it was evident that members of this organization participated in the tragedy of January 28, 2019 in the maritime waters of Capurganá, where a boat carrying several Migrants was shipwrecked, causing the death of several adults and children; it was also identified that, if the migrants were left without money to pay the expenses that were presented, they were detained in hotels and places of collection by order of the "Africano".
Those arrested were placed at the disposal of the competent authorities and will be charged with crimes of conspiracy to commit crimes and smuggling of migrants.
