Mexican Federal Police Extort Migrants More Often Than Any Drug Cartel, Says New Report

US-bound migrants heading north through Mexico face no easy road. The cargo trains atop which they often hitch a ride overturn; they’re easy prey for drug cartels who extort, kill or force them into work as mules. But La Casa del Migrante de Saltillo, a migrant shelter based in the northeastern Mexican state of Coahila, says that an even more common threat for migrants are members of the federal police. As Animal Politico reported on Thursday, the shelter has released a new report showing that in the second half of 2013, 47 percent of extortions of migrants in Mexico came at the hands of federal police agents.

That’s far above the percentage of extortions – which La Casa defines as having all your money and belongings demanded from you – committed by other groups. The organization found that 16 percent came at the hands of the Zeta drug gang, which has a reputation for brutality that exceeds the gruesome standards of other Mexican cartels, and another 8 percent from Mara Salvatrucha gang, which operates mostly in Central American countries. The other 29 percent of the time? Members of other police bodies, including local and state forces, were responsible.

This past July, the shelter joined another migrant-advocacy group based in Coahila, Frontera con Justicia, in accusing local police of torturing 30 undocumented migrants from Central America, including 2 women and 6 minors. The groups said that asphyxiation, electric shocks, rape, and “psychological violence” were among techniques used by local police to “spread terror and disguise their inefficiency from a society which demands security but also demands justice.”