The following news report from Brazil gives details about the bust of a major people-smuggling ring that routes its clients from South Asia to the United States using Brazil as a primary transit point.
It should be noted that this is a criminal enterprise, and the smuggling process is very profitable. Yet the leaders of cartel are Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh, and its paying clients are also South Asian Muslims. This is the way migrant trafficking into the USA becomes more than a matter of poor illiterate Latin Americans swarming across the border. And I don’t have to tell you that this is also how jihad is imported into the United States.
Many thanks to José Atento for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
00:00 | Eight foreigners were arrested on suspicion of smuggling of migrants | |
00:05 | via Brazil en route towards the United States. | |
00:09 | The investigation reports that the gang earned $10 million between 2014 | |
00:16 | and 2019. | |
00:19 | Authorities temporarily arrested five citizens of Bangladesh and three from Pakistan, | |
00:23 | among them the leader Saifullah Al Mamun, considered by the American government to be | |
00:28 | the greatest human trafficker in the world. | |
00:31 | The gang was based in São Paulo. | |
00:34 | Illegal migration to the United States was arranged through travel agencies | |
00:39 | aiming to launder money. The criminal organization charged up to US $10,000 per person | |
00:45 | to facilitate the migration. Migrants used a cable dollar system to make payment. | |
00:50 | They provided amounts | |
00:53 | to a dealer out there in South Asia and a corresponding money dealer over the | |
00:57 | in the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. | |
01:00 | They received these amounts and sent | |
01:03 | the value fractionally to | |
01:06 | an account of intermediaries of the smugglers here in São Paulo. | |
01:10 | Since November 2017, 84 people | |
01:14 | sent by the gang were arrested upon their arrival | |
01:17 | in the United States. Federal Police confirmed that another 395 migrants | |
01:22 | followed the Brazilian route with the same destination through two travel agencies | |
01:27 | in downtown São Paulo. The victims are | |
01:30 | mostly young people in their 30s. | |
01:33 | The investigation began in May of last year with international cooperation | |
01:37 | between the Federal Police and the North American migration agency. | |
01:42 | They intercepted phone calls and emails, and broke the bank and tax secrecy of the suspects. | |
01:47 | They found that the group provided asylum applications and | |
01:52 | false travel documents such as visas, passports and letters of | |
01:56 | a maritime crew to immigrants from South Asia | |
02:00 | specially Bangladesh, Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan. | |
02:05 | Illegal migrants departed from Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo, bound for Rio Branco, | |
02:11 | State of Acre, crossing the border with Peru, | |
02:15 | then traveling by land to the Mexican border with the United States. | |
02:19 | Logistics were arranged in contact with members of the criminal organization | |
02:23 | in the countries involved. There, in this region, hundreds or even | |
02:28 | thousands of people die during the crossing. These migrants must cross the jungle. | |
02:33 | Many of them end up getting sick and dying. | |
02:36 | Not only that, when they arrive in Mexico, after they are able to cross this border | |
02:40 | and manage to cross on foot through all the other countries, when they arrive in Mexico, | |
02:44 | many of them are kidnapped by Mexican drug cartels. | |
02:49 | Those arrested should answer for the crimes of immigrant smuggling, | |
02:52 | made worse by subjecting them to inhuman | |
02:55 | and degrading conditions, money-laundering | |
02:59 | and criminal conspiracy. |