Mexican authorities have warned that migrant caravans heading for the U.S. are being "extorted" by the notorious Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren De Aragua (TDA).

TDA, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott has designated as a terror group, is smuggling migrants, sex trafficking, drug trafficking and carrying out murder for hire and extortion, according to Border Report, which cited officials in Mexico.

"They developed a co-dependence with organized criminal groups," Chihuahua Public Safety Secretary Gilberto Loya said, according to the report. "We detected this here when we began to have a large number of migrant kidnappings and extortion—from people who came in the caravans and migrants who arrived by themselves to Juarez.

"The local groups began utilizing them to carry out the extortion. We also began to see them adapt with the local cartels to carry out kidnapping and sex-trafficking."