The steady wave of refugees pouring out of Central America and across Mexico’s southern border in hopes of eventually reaching the United States shows no sign of slowing down, and powerful crime groups are taking full advantage of what some refer to as the “migrant holocaust.”

In addition to producing and distributing narcotics, powerful cartels are now expanding into activities like immigrant smuggling and human trafficking, taking advantage of the abundance of helpless asylum seekers on the run. There have also been allegations that they are illegally harvesting vital organs from victims, especially children.

Meanwhile the growing crisis of gang violence and stark poverty in the “Northern Triangle” of Central America continues to cause scores of thousands of migrants to flee their homelands each year, providing plenty of candidates for exploitation amid ferocious violence. The death rate in Mexico’s Drug War is up about 30 percent since this time last year, with more than 10,000 dead so far, on pace to set an all-time high in 2017.