Guatemala City, Guatemala Guatemalan authorities on Tuesday dismantled a criminal network, with police among its ranks, responsible for smuggling migrants to the United States, the government said. 

Thirty-six people, including 23 active and two retired police officers, were arrested in the operation that involved 34 raids in the capital and other cities, according to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez. 

The ring “used police officers by bribing them to guarantee the passage of people,” he said in a message on X. 

The US embassy in Guatemala said the operation dismantled a network that “exploited nearly 10,000 migrants.” 

It also resulted in the seizing of illicit funds, electronic devices and firearms, the mission said on X. 

The United States embassy in Guatemala said the operation dismantled a network that ‘exploited nearly 10,000 migrants’Central America serves as a corridor for migrants from different parts of the world seeking to reach the United States. 

Prosecutor Marvin Orellana said the network had moved migrants from Russia, China, Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Vietnam, among other countries. 

Jimenez said the operation was part of a strategy by President Bernardo Arevalo’s government “not to criminalize migrants, but to pursue and dismantle human trafficking structures.”