Mexico Catches 50 Illegal Migrants on Plane

Mexican authorities intercepted 50 undocumented migrants from Cuba and Central America on a plane that was about to fly from Cancun to a city bordering Texas on Thursday.

The migrants had entered Mexico illegally when they were stopped in the Caribbean coast resort city before they could reach Reynosa, said an official from the National Migration Institute.

The migrants included 18 Cubans, 23 Salvadorans, five Guatemalans, two Hondurans, one from Belize and another from the Caribbean island of Granada.

In Reynosa, organized crime controls the trafficking of migrants, who are often kidnapped and held in homes until their families pay a ransom.

Some 200,000 migrants illegally enter Mexico every year across the southern border with Guatemala.

Many have hitched rides on a freight train known as "The Beast" but are forced to find alternative routes after authorities cracked down last year.