Mexico City - Mexican authorities arrested eight people for kidnapping 51 illegal Central American migrants, the state government said Friday in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas.

The arrests took place in Palenque, in Chiapas, near the border to the state of Tabasco.

"Through torture, they obtained information about (the migrants') relatives in the United States and in their countries of origin, to extort them for amounts ranging from 1,500 to
5,000 dollars," according to a report by the Chiapas public prosecutor's office.

The eight suspects, who were heavily armed, had kidnapped the migrants in Palenque and held them against their will at a local estate, the authorities said.(dpa)