MEXICO CITY, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Mexican police detained 101 unauthorized Central American migrants during two operations in eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, the authorities said Wednesday.
During an inspection of a tractor-trailer in the municipality of Tierra Blanca, officials found 86 adults and children loaded in the back of the vehicle, according to a news release issued by the Ministry of Safety and Civil Protection.
The migrants, from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, were crammed into the back of the truck, and the driver was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, the ministry said.
In the second operation, federal police and agents found 15 Central Americans, including nine minors, in a passenger bus along a highway in the municipality of Tantoyuca.
In the past two weeks, the Mexican government increased efforts to stop the flow of illegal migrants crossing Mexico to the United States. The flow of migrants without proper documentations grew to its highest level in more than a decade.
Mexican officials said the recent deployment of thousands of police and soldiers aims to counteract the operations of traffickers, who generally use tractor-trailers and cargo trucks to transport migrants to the border.
The actions are part of an effort to implement an agreement reached by Mexico and the United States on June 7, following an increase of Central American migrants who cross into Mexico through the porous border with Guatemala.
The agreement came after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all imported Mexican goods on grounds that Mexico did not do enough to stop the flow of migrants.
