Smuggling operations
Some smuggling operations involving countries with terror ties under investigation or previously dismantled by U.S. investigators:
IRAN TO ARIZONA:
A 39-year-old Iranian man was arrested May 26, 2005, suspected of trying to smuggle other Iranians into the United States over the Arizona-Mexico border. Last September, the FBI began investigating Zeayadali Malhamdary, a tailor in Mesa, Ariz., after an informant accused him of trying to enlist his services to bring migrants from Iran to America, according to a court affidavit.
An undercover agent, posing as a smuggler, subsequently recorded phone calls in which Malhamdary is heard offering to pay him $12,000 to insert fraudulent Mexican visas into Iranian passports to help the migrants get from Iran to Mexico and then over the border, the affidavit states.
Malhamdary, a legal permanent resident of the United States, has pleaded not guilty, and trial is pending.
THE MICHIGAN MISSION:
In September 2004, five defendants were indicted on federal charges of smuggling more than 200 illegal immigrants from Iraq, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries into the United States from 2001 to 2004. The defendants include Sterling Heights, Mich., residents Neeran "Nancy" Hakim Zaia and Basima "Linda" Sesi, Iraqi-born naturalized U.S. citizens.
The defendants are accused of providing counterfeit passports and fake documents to fly illegal migrants from the Middle East to Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C., using South American countries as transit points.
Zaia advertised her services in Arab-language Detroit media outlets, including a magazine and radio station. She also recruited in Iraq and Jordan, and ran an Amman-based travel agency where she and a cohort met with clients, court records allege.
Sesi, who worked as an assistant ombudsman for the city of Detroit, is accused of acting as a point person between Zaia and migrants, taking payments and transferring smuggling fees - including $10,000 to an undercover agent posing as a smuggler.
The defendants are awaiting trial in Washington, D.C.
THE GUATEMALAN EXPRESS:
An Egyptian man described by U.S. authorities as one of their most wanted people-smugglers was arrested July 2, 2004, at Miami International Airport on charges of transporting dozens of illegal immigrants into the United States since 1997, primarily from the community of Bata, Egypt.
A federal indictment alleges that Ashraf Ahmed Abdallah - aka "Juan Manuel" - ran his operation from Guatemala City along with his Guatemalan wife, Sara Luz Diaz Gamez. Abdallah employed a recruiter in Egypt, as well as transportation coordinators and stash-house operators in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico, the indictment says.
Court records say Abdallah would house migrants in Guatemala before transporting them to Mexico for illegal entry over the border into Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. A typical fee was $8,000 per migrant, records say, and Abdallah is said to have kept the migrants' passports to guarantee payment of the final installment of their fee upon their arrival in the United States.
Abdallah and Gamez are awaiting trial in Washington, D.C.
CANADA CONNECTION:
Last October, a federal judge in Seattle sentenced a Pakistani cab driver to 17 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to smuggling Pakistani and Indian citizens over the border from Canada. Investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement learned through an informant that Muhammad Qasum Lala was smuggling anywhere from six to 10 people several times a week from Canada into the area around Blaine, Wash. Lala, who lived in Surrey, British Columbia, charged about $3,000 a person, court documents say.
Muhammad was sentenced to a year in prison on each of two charges.
"OPERATION SHADOW":
A year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Maher Wazzen Ahmed Yusuf Jarad pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for transporting Middle Eastern migrants, primarily Iraqis, to the United States.
Former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar told the Sept. 11 commission that Jarad, operating out of Quito, Ecuador, was the head of a large smuggling organization known to smuggle Iraqis, Syrians, Palestinians and Egyptians.
He operated from at least October 2001 through February 2002, when authorities interdicted the Ecuadorean vessel "Esperanza" sailing to Guatemala with dozens of U.S.-bound illegal immigrants, including Ecuadoreans and Iraqis.
He was sentenced to 15 months in prison after agreeing to testify against another smuggler, Mohammed Hussein Assadi.
"OPERATION CHIVA":
Mohammed Hussein Assadi transported hundreds of people from "special-interest" countries, primarily Iraqis, into the United States from 1999 through January 2002 via commercial airliners, according to former INS commissioner Ziglar's testimony and court records.
Assadi's ring provided migrants with stolen, photo-substituted passports - often from European countries whose citizens did not require U.S. entry visas. Assadi instructed clients to carry nothing identifying them as Arab, and advised them to alter their appearance and mannerisms to look more European. He told one client to shave his mustache, another to dye her hair blonde, court records say.
Assadi used bribery to ensure that local airport and immigration officials did not prevent the departure of his customers aboard flights to the United States, according to a synopsis of the case written for the U.S. Department of Justice.
He transported customers out of Venezuela, Colombia and elsewhere. Assadi instructed the migrants to destroy their travel documents while en route to the United States and, upon arrival, surrender to U.S. immigration authorities and make a plea for asylum.
"Assadi exploited the common knowledge that lack of sufficient detention space would result in the release of most of his clients during the asylum review process, thereby achieving his objective of getting them into the country," the DOJ case synopsis says.
Assadi was arrested in January 2002 in Colombia preparing to put an Iraqi couple and their children on a flight to Miami with altered passports. A jury convicted him in October of that year, and he was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/front/v-print/story/2890908p-3348849c.html
Some smuggling operations involving countries with terror ties under investigation or previously dismantled by U.S. investigators:
IRAN TO ARIZONA:
A 39-year-old Iranian man was arrested May 26, 2005, suspected of trying to smuggle other Iranians into the United States over the Arizona-Mexico border. Last September, the FBI began investigating Zeayadali Malhamdary, a tailor in Mesa, Ariz., after an informant accused him of trying to enlist his services to bring migrants from Iran to America, according to a court affidavit.
An undercover agent, posing as a smuggler, subsequently recorded phone calls in which Malhamdary is heard offering to pay him $12,000 to insert fraudulent Mexican visas into Iranian passports to help the migrants get from Iran to Mexico and then over the border, the affidavit states.
Malhamdary, a legal permanent resident of the United States, has pleaded not guilty, and trial is pending.
THE MICHIGAN MISSION:
In September 2004, five defendants were indicted on federal charges of smuggling more than 200 illegal immigrants from Iraq, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries into the United States from 2001 to 2004. The defendants include Sterling Heights, Mich., residents Neeran "Nancy" Hakim Zaia and Basima "Linda" Sesi, Iraqi-born naturalized U.S. citizens.
The defendants are accused of providing counterfeit passports and fake documents to fly illegal migrants from the Middle East to Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C., using South American countries as transit points.
Zaia advertised her services in Arab-language Detroit media outlets, including a magazine and radio station. She also recruited in Iraq and Jordan, and ran an Amman-based travel agency where she and a cohort met with clients, court records allege.
Sesi, who worked as an assistant ombudsman for the city of Detroit, is accused of acting as a point person between Zaia and migrants, taking payments and transferring smuggling fees - including $10,000 to an undercover agent posing as a smuggler.
The defendants are awaiting trial in Washington, D.C.
THE GUATEMALAN EXPRESS:
An Egyptian man described by U.S. authorities as one of their most wanted people-smugglers was arrested July 2, 2004, at Miami International Airport on charges of transporting dozens of illegal immigrants into the United States since 1997, primarily from the community of Bata, Egypt.
A federal indictment alleges that Ashraf Ahmed Abdallah - aka "Juan Manuel" - ran his operation from Guatemala City along with his Guatemalan wife, Sara Luz Diaz Gamez. Abdallah employed a recruiter in Egypt, as well as transportation coordinators and stash-house operators in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico, the indictment says.
Court records say Abdallah would house migrants in Guatemala before transporting them to Mexico for illegal entry over the border into Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. A typical fee was $8,000 per migrant, records say, and Abdallah is said to have kept the migrants' passports to guarantee payment of the final installment of their fee upon their arrival in the United States.
Abdallah and Gamez are awaiting trial in Washington, D.C.
CANADA CONNECTION:
Last October, a federal judge in Seattle sentenced a Pakistani cab driver to 17 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to smuggling Pakistani and Indian citizens over the border from Canada. Investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement learned through an informant that Muhammad Qasum Lala was smuggling anywhere from six to 10 people several times a week from Canada into the area around Blaine, Wash. Lala, who lived in Surrey, British Columbia, charged about $3,000 a person, court documents say.
Muhammad was sentenced to a year in prison on each of two charges.
"OPERATION SHADOW":
A year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Maher Wazzen Ahmed Yusuf Jarad pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for transporting Middle Eastern migrants, primarily Iraqis, to the United States.
Former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar told the Sept. 11 commission that Jarad, operating out of Quito, Ecuador, was the head of a large smuggling organization known to smuggle Iraqis, Syrians, Palestinians and Egyptians.
He operated from at least October 2001 through February 2002, when authorities interdicted the Ecuadorean vessel "Esperanza" sailing to Guatemala with dozens of U.S.-bound illegal immigrants, including Ecuadoreans and Iraqis.
He was sentenced to 15 months in prison after agreeing to testify against another smuggler, Mohammed Hussein Assadi.
"OPERATION CHIVA":
Mohammed Hussein Assadi transported hundreds of people from "special-interest" countries, primarily Iraqis, into the United States from 1999 through January 2002 via commercial airliners, according to former INS commissioner Ziglar's testimony and court records.
Assadi's ring provided migrants with stolen, photo-substituted passports - often from European countries whose citizens did not require U.S. entry visas. Assadi instructed clients to carry nothing identifying them as Arab, and advised them to alter their appearance and mannerisms to look more European. He told one client to shave his mustache, another to dye her hair blonde, court records say.
Assadi used bribery to ensure that local airport and immigration officials did not prevent the departure of his customers aboard flights to the United States, according to a synopsis of the case written for the U.S. Department of Justice.
He transported customers out of Venezuela, Colombia and elsewhere. Assadi instructed the migrants to destroy their travel documents while en route to the United States and, upon arrival, surrender to U.S. immigration authorities and make a plea for asylum.
"Assadi exploited the common knowledge that lack of sufficient detention space would result in the release of most of his clients during the asylum review process, thereby achieving his objective of getting them into the country," the DOJ case synopsis says.
Assadi was arrested in January 2002 in Colombia preparing to put an Iraqi couple and their children on a flight to Miami with altered passports. A jury convicted him in October of that year, and he was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/front/v-print/story/2890908p-3348849c.html