REVEALED: The entrepreneurs behind the migrant gold rush are raking in cash by charging $40 for boat rides, $100 for porters over muddy mountains and chicken dinners for $10

Migrants flooding a stretch of jungle en route to the United States have spawned lucrative business opportunities for entrepreneurs looking to cash in on the crisis. 

This year alone, over 360,000 people have crossed through a region from Colombia to Panama known as the 'Darien Gap', offering a huge new client base to an area whose remoteness once meant it seemed destined for eternal poverty. 

For $40, migrants can pay for a boat ride into the rainforest; guides for the journey northwards charge $170; and families can enjoy a plate of chicken and rice at the end of a hard day's hiking - but not without forking over $10. 

Guides leading people on the trek make up to $800-a-month - close to four times the average Colombian monthly salary. 

Although the loudest voices against the migration crisis such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams are elected officials, many of those leading the cash-grab south of the border are also local leaders and politicians thankful for the windfall. 

'We have organized everything: the boatmen, the guides, the bag carriers,' Darwin Garcia, an elected member of the community board at Acandi, a Colombian community at the entrance of the jungle, told the New York Times. 

Migrants rest as the get food and internet services, after trekking across the Darien Gap from Colombia, on October 4, 2023

Over 360,000 migrants have passed through the Darien Gap this year. Pictured: Huge lines of refugees carrying belongings queue for a boat service in the area on October 5, 2023

A Wifi sign hangs in the village of Bajo Chiquito in the Darien Gap, where migrants are offered services that also include porters, food and security 

Enterprising Colombian and Panama leaders have taken home millions this year directly from the migrant deluge, leading locals to rejoice while Americans plead for the deluge to stop. 

This chasm was evident in Garcia's remarks, where he said the migrant goldrush is 'the best thing that could have happened' to his community, while Adams visited the Darien Gap this month to urge travelers not to come to New York City. 

Many of those rushing the border end up in New York City, which has struggled to shelter over 120,000 migrants in the metro this year. 

But before they reach the US, where many are bussed north by southern states such as Texas, many take a perilous journey over treacherous terrain and encounter dangerous cartels 

The epicenter of the development has become the Darien Gap, a formerly-lowly populated jungle and mountainous area that has seen over 100,000 more people cross through than in 2022 - when 250,000 migrants was a record. 

Locals once hoped the naturally-beautiful area would become a tourist hotspot, only for such dreams to be dashed when migrants began to descend.

But they quickly realized that the problem could become very lucrative for them.  

Colombia and Panama signed a joint agreement with the United States in April to halt the movement, which it acknowledged 'leads to death and exploitation of vulnerable people for significant profit.' 

Notably, the Darien Gap is seen as being governed by cartels, and it is the only land route connecting South America to the United States, forcing many without another option to go through the pay-as-you-go jungle. 

The Darien Gap is the only land channel connecting South America, from Colombia, towards the United States through Panama

A thriving migrant industry has spawned in the dense jungle 

Migrants heading north line up to take a boat in Bajo Chiquito in the Darien province of Panama

A long line of boats ready to shuttle migrants heading north through Panama on their way to the United States in the Darien province

But government efforts appear powerless - or unwilling - to stop the multi-million dollar economy that has developed around the train heading north. 

Garcia's brother Luis Fernando Martinez, the head of the local tourism board and a candidate for mayor of Acandi, praised the boom, saying that it has brought cash to a region that 'didn't have a defined economy before.' 

'This is a beautiful economy,' added Fredy Marin, a former town councilman who charges thousands of migrants $40 each to ferry them towards the United States in a boating company he owns. 

'What was first a problem has become an opportunity,' he said. 

Other services reportedly offered to migrants as they travel through include $100 for a porter to carry belongings, and all-inclusive packages including tents and boots for upwards of $500. 

In his bid for mayor of Necocli, a neighboring municipality to Acandi, Marin has reportedly made maintaining the soaring migration industry a central pillar of his platform. 

Although Americans may feel anger or resentment at those making a fortune off the crisis, there is a sense that the crisis is a wave worth riding. 'Five hundred thousand people are going to pass through', said Martinez. 'What do we do?' 

The fervent support for the newfound industry sparked chaos during Adams' visit to the Darien Gap last week, where he boasted of ignoring warning about visiting the dangerous area while forcing the over-stretched police to protect him. 

During the trip, furious locals could also be seen waving signs calling him 'the real face of New York' and a 'migrant hating creep.' 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams delivers a statement about the migrant crisis in the Darien Gap, during his visit to Colombia on October 7, 2023

Migrants protest during the visit of New York City Mayor Eric Adams to Necocli, northern Colombia, on October 7, 2023

The NYC Mayor sparked a security scramble when he visited the dangerous region, where he boasted of ignoring advice not to make the trip 

Many migrants pass through treacherous terrain on their way to the US, hiring porters to help carry backpacks and possessions northwards

Although the US government has claimed that its Colombian counterparts are trying to fulfil their end of the deal, a months-long New York Times investigation found that officials have hardly laid down the law. 

The outlet claims that when police confront those selling goods and services to the migrants, they are often fist-bumped before being led on their way. 

In the absence of action to stop them, community board members like Garcia have successfully launched a 'tourism'-style business called the New Light Darien Foundation to cash in on the area. 

The 2,000-employee venture reportedly manages the route from Acandi and into Panama, where they charge every step of the way.  

A large number of migrants heading into the US are from Venezuela, where the nation's population has plummeted from 29 million to less than 22 million amid its economic decline. 

While the vast majority of the seven million have opted for neighboring countries, many have made their way to the US. From 2015 to 2018, only around 100 Venezuelans were stopped annually at the border.

From October 2021 to August 2022, that number stood at 150,000. 

Asylum seekers walk towards the jungle near the first border control town in the Darien province, a journey towards Bajo Chiquito that takes roughly five days

Migrants bathe in Tuquesa River at Bajo Chiquito, Darien province, Panama, Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023

Although authorities have pledged to end the unprecedented flow of migrants through the area, local leaders have indicated a desire for the new industry to persist into the future

Colombia's president Gustavo Petro has pointed the blame at his lack of control over the Darien Gap on America's sanctions on Venezuela, saying that the crisis is 'the product of poorly taken measures against Latin American peoples.' 

For those that make their way through with the New Light Darien Foundation, their belongings are transported by porters in color-coded, numbered T-shirts - with more opulent migrants able to pay extra for advanced services like security at the border. 

After receiving proof-of-payment bracelets around their wrists, Renny Montilla, 25, a Venezuelan construction worker, proclaimed it was 'like a ticket to Disney.'