Immigrants pay smugglers up to $15,000 for getting irregularly crossed through the border, according to a state official.

While crossing arrangements are sometimes made to immigrants at home others are given the opportunity once arriving in Mexicali, La Voz newspaper reported.

Special Units Assistant Attorney General Denisse Hernandez told the newspaper that so far this year only two immigrants have filed complaints of abduction by alleged smugglers.

No arrests have been reported, Hernandez said.

The assistant attorney general added that smugglers contact immigrant relatives to demand a cash payment in order to release the victim. Last year 14 individuals were arrested for abduction of immigrants.