Coyotes and Pollos

Nicknames for people-smugglers and their cargo, respectively.

Reports that 368 people were kidnapped in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2008 earned the city the dubious accolade of America’s “kidnapping capital,” and brought fresh attention to the slang terms pollo and coyote. Newsweekexplained:

Though much of Phoenix’s kidnapping epidemic stems from alleged drug deals gone awry, plenty are linked to the human-smuggling trade. That work used to be dominated by small “mom and pop” outfits, but in time, the cartels have muscled in on it. Any group that wants to use their trafficking routes has to pay up – about $2,000 per week for Mexicans and $10,000 per week for “exotics,” like Chinese and Middle Easterners. … That added business cost has encouraged some smugglers to try to extort more money from their human loads – known as pollos.

According to the BBC:

“Pollos” – or chickens – are told by the smugglers, or “coyotes,” that the price of their passage has suddenly gone up. They are held – often in large groups – in safe houses until their relatives pay up. If the money does not come, the pollos may be coerced into helping the coyoteshold other hostages. In some cases, they are killed.

In 2003, the Times reported on the rise of the bajadero – “a chicken-stealing member of the underworld, who makes money kidnapping illegal immigrants from their smugglers, holding them for ransom and in the worst case killing them if not paid promptly.” It would seem, then, that thecoyotes have progressed to the next logical step – kidnapping their own cargo.