As smuggling rings made billions from migrants, the U.S. was sidelined

Felipe Diego Alonzo, previously seen as a simple farmer, built a lucrative human-smuggling route from Central America to Texas, proving more profitable than drug trafficking.

With an estimated $4 billion to $12 billion income annually, migrant smuggling has become a primary revenue source for groups like the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels.

At least 80% of unlawful border-crossers now hire smugglers, showcasing how the efficiency of smuggling operations has escalated in recent years.

Despite the rising crisis and significant profits in human smuggling, the U.S. government had largely overlooked efforts to dismantle these criminal networks until recent events.

Read at Washington Post