Ex-Officers Sentenced to 50 Years for 2021 Migrant Massacre in Mexico

Elite Police Unit Convicted in Killings of 17 Migrants and Two Citizens; U.S. Trained Some Officers

11 former police officers from an elite group in the northern state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, have been sentenced to 50 years in prison each for the 2021 killings of 17 migrants and two Mexican citizens.
The officers were convicted of homicide and abuse of authority, with a 12th officer convicted only of abuse of authority and sentenced to 19 years in prison.
The victims' bodies were found in a charred pickup truck in Camargo, across the Rio Grande from Texas, an area known for turf battles between drug cartels.
Most of the dead migrants were from rural, Indigenous farming communities in Guatemala, and their relatives lost contact with 13 of them as they traveled toward the U.S.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City confirmed that three of the 12 officers charged in the massacre had received training through a State Department program before they were assigned to the special unit.