21 police officers arrested for running kidnapping ring in Chiapas

 The Chiapas Attorney's General Office launched an investigaiton against 21 municipal police officers from Chiapa de Corzo accused of kidnapping 19 Central American migrants for ransom.

According to the investigation, the C4 Command and Control Center received an anonymous civilian complaint of a group of people, among them women and children, who were forced off a tourist bus and whisked away on several Chiapa de Corzo municipal police trucks.

State police officers confirmed this information and found several migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras held at the municipal police station.

The foreigners said that the bus travelling to the Mexico-U.S. border was intercepted by police officers and that they were then forced off the bus after failing to provide their migratory documentaiton. They were then “locked” in a room at the municipal police station.

The Attorney General said in a press statement that the municipal police officers asked the migrants to provide the names and phone numbers of family members in their countries of origin or residing in the U.S. to ask for 150 dollars for their release.

21 municipal police officers were arrested as a result of these allegations.

As of yesterday, 200 Chiapas state police officers have taken over security of Chiapa de Corzo in view of the local police officers' involvement in a network of trafficking undocumented migrants in that region of Chiapas.