Federal cops responded to an anonymous tip in southern Mexico and found 338 migrants Central Americans - almost half of them children - aboard five buses.

The migrants were traveling aboard five buses on a dirt road in the southwestern Mexican state of Chiapas on Monday.

An operation was subsequently set up in the town of Textual Gútierrez and a team of officers intercepted the coaches on a highway connecting the cities of Tecpatán and Raudales Malpaso.

Mexican immigration officials reported that there were 181 adults and 157 children from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. One of the migrants was a Cuban national.

On Monday, federal police officers in southwest Mexico responded to an anonymous tip and stopped five buses (one of them pictured above) that were smuggling 338 migrants from Central America

Immigration officials in Mexico found 338 undocumented migrants. At least 157 were children. Mexican authorities released this blurred footage

President Donald Trump has threatened to close the United States-Mexico border unless the Mexican government steps up its effort to stop the influx of Central Americans into their country which end up showing up at U.S. border entry points

The federal police officers arrested 15 people suspected of being part of a human trafficking network and confiscated three vehicles.

The agents also seized six cell phones, three wireless radios and a laptop.

The suspects remained in the custody of the Federal Public Ministry and have not been charged yet.

The migrants received medical attention and were later transferred to the custody of the National Migration Institute pending further investigations.

Chiapas has become a major entry point for a wave of documented and undocumented Central Americans who have fled their countries in hopes of reaching the southern United States border with Mexico that stretches for 1,954 miles.

The Mexican southwestern state of Chiapas has served as a major crossing point for Central American migrants hoping to reach the Mexico-United States border

Officials in Mexico got an anonymous tip that there were five buses traveling in the southwestern state of Chiapas with 338 migrants from Central America

On March 23, at least 1,200 migrants started trekking from Chiapas towards the northern states of Mexico, hedging their bets that U.S. immigration officials would consider their petitions for asylum.

Five days later, another group of almost 1,800 migrants, most of them Cubans, made their way up north after immigration officials temporarily shut down offices in the towns of Tapachula and Suchiate.

At the urging of the Trump administration, the Mexican government has recently stepped up its effort to combat the exodus of migrants from Central America who have crossed into the United States without legal documents.

Immigration centers have been so overwhelmed as of late, that detained individuals and families have been released.

It's driven President Donald Trump to threaten to shut down the Mexico-U.S. border unless Mexico acts.

'We're going to have a strong border or we're going to have a closed border,' he told reporters Tuesday as he met NATO's secretary general.

'We're going to see what happens.'

The White House also said on Tuesday that Mexico was taking more responsibility for dealing with illegal immigration and stressed it continue to address the issue so Washington does not need to move ahead with a threat to close the southern U.S. border.

'We need them to continue to do that so that we aren't forced to take drastic action like closing the ports of entry at our border,' White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told Fox News.

If the border closes, economists project a rapid rise in the cost of many everyday goods for U.S. households.

Nearly $1.7billion of goods and services flow across the border daily, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.