Chile police bust crime ring smuggling Haitian children to U.S., Mexico

FILE PHOTO: A migrant with a child seeking refuge in the U.S. wades through the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico toward Del Rio, Texas, U.S., in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico September 22, 2021. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean police have dismantled a crime ring that helped smuggle hundreds of children of Haitian migrants, sometimes without their parents, from Chile north to Mexico and the United States, Interpol said on Monday.

The transnational group orchestrated a complex, cross-border network that smuggled an estimated 1,000 Haitian migrants out of Chile, including 267 Chilean children under the age of six, all born to Haitian migrants, according to the global police co-ordination agency.