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Four Indians arrested for human smuggling to US
US authorities have busted 'a smuggling operation' involving four men of Indian origin after a two-year-long probe.
US authorities have busted "an extensive international alien smuggling operation" involving four men of Indian origin after a two-year-long probe.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Niranjan Maan Singh, also known as Jit Narinder Singh, and Ramesh Patel, the alleged leaders of the extensive international alien smuggling operation, were brought to New York Wednesday to face criminal charges.
The two were arrested in Miami after being deported from Venezuela, an ICE statement said.
A grand jury in the Southern District of New York has indicted Singh, Patel, and two other defendants - Sunil Kewalramani and Gurdial Singh Pegany - for "conspiring to smuggle aliens into the United States for commercial gain and financial advantage".
"The national security and public safety of our nation depends on an immigration system with integrity," said Salvatore Dalessandro, ICE's acting special agent in charge of the New York office.
"We are restoring integrity through aggressive targeting of violent criminals and smuggling organisations that are motivated by pure greed and profit."
According to court documents, ICE agents in New York and in the Dominican Republic have been investigating the alleged alien smuggling operation of Singh, Patel, Kewalramani and Pegany since 2003.
If convicted, each of the defendants faces a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
In November 2004, Singh, a resident of Venezuela, allegedly spoke on telephone on several occasions with an undercover ICE agent about his smuggling operation. The calls were recorded.
During one such call, Singh advised the agent that he was in the process of obtaining Venezuelan passports for aliens because holders of Venezuelan passports are not required to possess a visa to enter the Dominican Republic.
In another conversation, Singh allegedly discussed the various costs of smuggling his aliens into the US.
ICE alleged that Singh subsequently sent two people into the Dominican Republic in January 2005. From there, the aliens were transported by ferryboat to Puerto Rico, where they subsequently took a commercial flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, according to the charges.
ICE undercover agents reportedly learned that Patel, a resident of Curacao in the Dutch Antilles, had gathered foreign nationals from various countries for smuggling into the US.
Kewalramani, another resident of Curacao and the owner of a business there, allegedly aided Patel by supplying him with false "invitation letters" letters stating that Patel's aliens were being employed by Kewalramani's business.
From Curacao, the illegal immigrants made their way to the Dominican Republic, where they stayed until final arrangements for their transportation into the US could be made.
"Between February 2004 and January 2005, Patel used the Dominican Republic as a staging area for sending 10 smugglees into the United States, it was charged. The first eight allegedly flew directly from the Dominican Republic into JFK Airport, while the last two were allegedly transported from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico via ferryboat and then flown to JFK Airport," ICE said.
The forth defendant, Pegany, a US citizen and a resident of California, allegedly funded the immigrants' transport and their food and lodging during this process, according to the charges.
