Cartel Boss: Border Crackdown Drives Smuggling Fees To $10,000, Migrant Debt Rising In Arizona

CNN’s AC360 aired an interview with a man identified as a senior Sinaloa Cartel leader saying U.S. enforcement under Trump is making operations harder. Reporters and local officials in Cochise County, AZ, say smuggling prices have jumped from about $6,500 to nearly $10,000 per person and roughly a third of migrants crossing there are indebted to cartels, raising forced-labor risks. The pattern points to enforcement pressure reshaping cartel tactics and shifting costs onto migrants in the Arizona corridor.