Puerto Morelos, Q.R. — Navy personnel rescued a total of 81 foreign migrants from a ranch in the town of Leona Vicario in Puerto Morelos Saturday. Authorities were tipped off by a citizen report.
A surveillance operation lead police to the discovery of 40 men, 25 women and 16 minors being held at the ranch. In a statement, the Secretary of the Navy reported that personnel from the Ninth Naval Region provided support in the rescue of 81 foreigners in the town of Leona Vicario Saturday.
The operation was carried out when naval personnel commissioned in the Public Security Secretariat of Puerto Morelos, in collaboration with Public Security elements in the town of Leona Vicario, received a report that there were people deprived of their liberty on a ranch.
Due to the above, elements from both agencies went to the area, locating said property and finding inside 81 people (40 men, 25 women and 16 minors) of Honduran, Nicaraguan, Guatemalan and Salvadoran nationalities.
Authorities proceeded to rescue them. They were later transferred to the facilities of the Municipal Secretariat of Public Safety and Transit of Puerto Morelos where they underwent a medical examination, finding them in good health.
The 81 foreigners were concentrated in the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in Combating Crimes Committed against Migrants in the city of Cancun from where they were later channeled to the National Migration Institute (INM) for the corresponding legal procedures.