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Cartel human smuggling business is turning entire border towns into war zones

CIUDAD JUÁREZ – Mexican drug cartels are making millions in profits from the hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border and are now turning entire border towns into war zones. 

The money left by the migrants trying to get across the border wall from Mexico into the U.S. to criminal organizations that are charging to guide them across, extorting them or kidnapping them is creating a multimillion-dollar illegal business. Now the different criminal organizations operating across the border are fighting to death for a piece of the pie. 

From small towns like Sonoyta, across the border from Lukeville, Arizona, to entire cities like Ciudad Juárez, across the river from El Paso, Texas, different cartels are killing each other and challenging Mexican authorities to gain control of the smuggling routes.

In a video from Dec. 29 shared online from Sonoyta, Sonora in northern Mexico, an SUV with several armed men around it is set on fire during a violent gunfight between alleged members of a local criminal organization with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and the Mexican army, according to local news outlets. 

The same cartel member in Ciudad Juárez confirmed that two gangs, one affiliated with the Juarez cartel and another with Sinaloa Cartel, are fighting for the human smuggling business, and that the turf war has extended to U.S. border cities. 

“This business is not only on this (Mexican) side of the border, it is also leaving millions in the U.S. to American smugglers, so they are also fighting for this business over there,” the smuggler said. 

Luis Chaparro is a freelance journalist based at the US-Mexico border covering criminal organizations in Latin America.He can be followed on Twitter @luiskuryaki

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