SEATTLE - For years, criminal groups like cartels have made billions of dollars by smuggling large quantities of drugs into the United States. But a recent report suggests that, although drugs continue to be profitable for groups such as the Sinaloa cartel or the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), the human-smuggling business has reached new heights in terms of revenue.
With an estimated revenue of $4 billion to $12 billion a year, the smuggling of migrants has joined drugs and extortion as the top income stream for criminal groups in Mexico, Central and South America, as at least 80% of all undocumented immigrants making their way to the U.S. see the need to hire smugglers to help them cross treacherous paths along the way.
