16 Marines arrested for human smuggling

The US military said on Thursday it had arrested 16 Marines on human trafficking and drug-related charges. The group was taken into custody during a battalion formation at Camp Pendleton, a major Marine base in California about 65 miles north of the Mexican border. Similar instances of US military members helping migrants enter the US were reported in 2014, 2017 and last year. The military said the Marines arrested Thursday were not part of the military deployment ordered to the US-Mexico border.