Mexico intercepts over 500 migrants, some forcibly drugged

Mexico blocked more than 500 migrants this weekend from being transported to the US — including 206 who were found forcibly drugged inside an abandoned trailer — as authorities crack down on illegal and unsafe transportation practices.

Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) said 206 migrants were found “locked in airtight compartments of an abandoned trailer” in the town of Puente Nacional, Veracruz, on Saturday.

Those migrants, who were packed into the crowded vehicle on their trek from Guatemala and Honduras, were “forced to ingest substances to endure their confinement,” the INM said, according to Newsflash.

Men, women and children were all found inside the trailer wearing identification bracelets, the INM said.

After being found, the migrants told officials that they were cramped, dehydrated and medicated to inhibit their basic needs for the long and precarious journey.

Officials said 132 of the migrants were traveling in family units from Guatemala and three families made up of 12 people came from Honduras.

There were 39 adults traveling alone, including four women and 35 men, and 20 minors — 15 boys and five girls — all from Guatemala.

Three other adults from Honduras were also traveling alone.

“The minors and family units were transferred to the National System for Integral Family Development (DIF), while the adult individuals were taken to INM facilities to undergo the corresponding immigration procedures,” the INM said.

The inside of the trailer, which had been modified with “airtight material” to avoid detection by X-ray security checkpoints at the border, had also been modified to have a second level.

The truck had been abandoned by the alleged traffickers, and the driver fled the scene.

The vehicle was handed over to the Attorney General’s Office in Veracruz, the INM said.

Migrants are now being processed by authorities, and face being sent back to Central America.

On Friday, the INM reported that authorities had intercepted 303 migrants in two separate operations in Veracruz.

In the first, 107 migrants without regular migration status — including 20 unaccompanied minors — were discovered in a tractor-trailer that was pulled over by authorities on the highway.

Six people were arrested for their alleged roles in transporting the migrants, who had been traveling from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

In the second operation, authorities found 196 migrants, including 19 unaccompanied minors, jammed inside an improperly parked tractor-trailer in the city of Fortin de las Flores.

Five were adults from Guatemala and five were adults from India, the INM said without providing details on the other migrants found.

With Post wires