Guatemala Police have arrested a man suspected to be the leader of a human trafficking ring that smuggled illegal immigrants from various countries including Nepal, during the international operation "Mesoamerica" on Tuesday. 

According to Reuters, Luis Leonardo Mejia Pasapera, alias "Leo" was detained outside a hotel in the Capital—Guatemala City.

Pasapera and his outfit smuggled illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal, among other countries to the United States. This group has hotels, safe houses or warehouses where they housed and fed migrants, reported Reuters quoting local media.

In the Central American country, 16 raids were carried out by agents of the General Department for Criminal Investigation, in coordination with Public Prosecutor's Office.

A total of 10 suspected traffickers were captured simultaneously with police institutions in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador, reported a local news portal, Agencia Guatemala de Noticias (AGN).

According to the AGN news report, Mayra Veliz, secretary general of the investigating agency, explained in a press conference that this case lasted a year and established that traffickers charged between $20,000 and $25,000 for illegally carrying citizens of various nations to the United States.

Investigations by security forces found that, for the transfer of migrants, members of this criminal group contracted services from different means of maritime and land transport. The report further adds that the outfit used blind spots along the El Salvador border to smuggle people. 

The news site reports that, passports from different countries, notebooks, migration office documents, certificates of deposits, remittances, invoices, drug, a car, a motorcycle, an ATV and money were seized as evidence during the operation.

The other detained smugglers have been identified as Franco Yosimar Gerson Pacheco, Mario Ortega Penate, Penate Ricardo Ortega, Lorenzo Iboy, Roger Daniel Enriquez alias Zepeda, Auner Ivan Solis Lopez, Kerwin Stuart Matul Castillo, Elvis Emilser Lopez Ramirez and Miguel Angel Najera Polanco.