-Published: Friday, November 1, 2019-

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services


Brazilian law enforcement with help from the United States has cracked down on a smuggling operation there that has links to Costa Rica.

The U.S. Justice Department characterized the case as an extensive coordination and cooperation effort with the Brazilian Federal Police.

According to the Department of Justice report, Brazilian police have arrested suspects on charges of human smuggling and one alleged smuggler has also been indicted in the United States. 

The suspects are alleged to be responsible for the illicit smuggling of scores of individuals from South Asia and elsewhere into Brazil and ultimately to the United States.

One of the suspects, surnamed Al-Mamun, 32, was the man who already has been indicted. He was arrested in Brazil.  According to the indictment, Al-Mamun is alleged to have housed the aliens in São Paulo, Brazil, and arranged for their travel through a network of smugglers operating in Costa Rica, as well as other countries like Perú, Ecuador, Colombia, Panamá, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to reach the United States.

Al-Mamun is charged in a superseding indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Laredo Division, charging him with eight conspiracy and alien smuggling counts, said the Justice Department in its report.

The enforcement operation included the execution of multiple search warrants and the additional arrests of seven Brazil-based human smugglers on Brazilian charges.

“In return for smuggling the aliens into the United States, Al-Mamun and two co-conspirators, are alleged to have arranged to be paid in Mexico, Central America, South America, Bangladesh, and elsewhere,” said the Justice Department.

“Today’s indictment shows our commitment to prosecute here in the United States those alien smugglers who put our country’s public safety at risk by attempting to thwart our system of legal immigration,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.  “We will continue to collaborate with our foreign law enforcement partners to hold international human smugglers accountable for the threat they pose to the national security of Brazil, the United States and other nations.”

“Transnational human smuggling organizations threaten the security of the United States,” said Special Agent in Charge Scott Brown of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Phoenix, Arizona. “Through a significant joint effort with our domestic and international law enforcement partners, these arrests signify another victory as we continue to investigate and dismantle those who conspire to undermine our nation’s immigration laws for their own profit.”

Trial attorneys James Hepburn, Erin Cox and Mona Sahaf of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section are handling the U.S. investigation with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

The charges contained in the Al-Mamun indictment are merely allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, the Justice Department noted.

More information on this case can be reached at Justice Department site.



--------------------
Have you hear on human smuggling organizations in your community? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to: news@amcostarica.com