RIO DE JANEIRO, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Federal Police (PF) announced on Wednesday that they dismantled a group belonging to an international human smuggling organization sending illegal migrants to the United States.
The PF said in a statement that this was the third phase of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" operation, which began in January last year, to investigate human smuggling through the Bahamas to the United States.
Police carried out Wednesday's operation in the northwest Brazilian state of Rondonia with the help of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Bahamian authorities.
According to the statement, agents broke up one of the largest groups involved in illegally sending Brazilian children and adolescents to the United States.
The group operated under a scheme whereby adults entered the United States accompanied with children so that they would not be immediately deported if detained.
According to the PF, the group sent an average of 150 adults and 30 minors to the United States each year.
Investigations began after the disappearance of a Brazilian citizen during an attempt to enter the United States.
A group of 12 Brazilians were subsequently lost at sea when traveling between the Bahamas and the United States.
Police investigations showed that migrants would stay in cities with international airports until they received the order to travel to the Bahamas, helped by an immigration agent.
The migrants would then wait in the Bahamas before traveling by boat to enter illegally into the United States.
The police warned that the group hid the real dangers of the boat journey from the Bahamas to the United States, where rough seas and storms are common.
