Kidnapped Migrants Found: Mexican Police Free 165 Migrants Captured As They Attempted To Cross Into US

A group of 165 migrants attempting to cross the U.S. were held captive when a group that promised to escort them to the border turned them all over to criminal organizations.

Mexican police said Thursday that soliders found the missing migrant group -- of which 20 were minors -- in a home on the border state of Tamaulipas, CNN reported. Of the captives, 150 were from Central American, 14 are from Mexico and one was from India, according to Mexico's Interior Ministry. They were held in unsanitary conditions somewhere between two and three weeks.

"The victims said that they had the intention of entering the United States of America, but they were held against their will while a suspected criminal group contacted their families by phone and demanded different sums of money that were sent to their kidnappers," Interior Ministry spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said.

Mexican authorities made the discovery June 4, after following a tip that said people with weapons were spotted in the town of Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, NBC News reported. When soldiers arrived at the house, the prime suspect attempted to flee. Juan Cortez Arrez, 20, was detained and handed over to prosecutors as a suspect in the case. Sanchez did not identify any suspected criminal groups and provided no further commentary to reporters.

Amnesty International cites Mexico as having a serious problem with kidnappings, threats and abuse by criminal gangs. An estimated 11,333 migrants were kidnapped during a six-month period in 2010, Mexico's National Commission for Human Rights said. A total of 72 migrants from Central and South America were found slain at a ranch along the U.S.-Mexico border that same year.

Since the surge of violence following the drug war that began six years ago, 26,000 have gone missing in Mexico. Authorities do not have data on how many of those kidnapped were linked to organized crime.