Pakistani jailed in the US for charges of human smuggling

Pakistani jailed in the US for charges of human smuggling 

A Pakistani national was sentenced on Tuesday in Columbia to 31 months in prison on a human smuggling charge.

Muhammad Abid Hussain, 27, was sentenced by US District Judge John D Bates.

On January 31, 2012, a federal jury in Washington, DC found Hussain guilty of conspiring to encourage and induce an individual to come to the United States unlawfully.

According to the evidence presented at the trial, in February and March 2011, Hussain and a co-conspirator conducted a human smuggling operation in Quito, Ecuador in which they had attempted to smuggle an individual from Pakistan to the United States.

Hussain was arrested in Miami on March 13, 2011.

Hussain was acquitted of a second charge of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization relating to the same conduct.

The case was prosecuted jointly by prosecutors from the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the Criminal Division, the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division, and the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The investigation was conducted by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) attaché office in Quito, Ecuador, with the HSI office in Atlanta, the Miami Division of the FBI, and the Ecuadorian National Police.

The investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and HSI.

The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks or present grave humanitarian concerns. ECT has dedicated investigative, intelligence, and prosecutorial resources. ECT coordinates and
receives assistance from other US government agencies and foreign law enforcement authorities.

The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs, the US National Central Bureau of Interpol, the US Customs and Border Protection, the US Embassy in Quito, and the government of Ecuador provided invaluable support.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=18738

Posted by Ammar Ahmad on Apr 12 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry