Brazil arrests Bangladeshi leader of human smuggling ring

An international human smuggling ring -- from Bangladesh via South America to Mexico with the United States as its end destination -- was busted with the arrest of its leader in Brazil.

Thursday (Oct. 31) extensive coordination and cooperation efforts between United States and Brazilian law enforcement authorities culminated in the Brazil Federal Police (DPF) conducting a significant enforcement operation to disrupt and dismantle a transnational alien smuggling organization, including the arrest on Brazilian charges of an alleged alien smuggler who has also been indicted in the United States.

The alien smugglers targeted in this operation 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.

Saifullah Al-Mamun aka Saiful Al-Mamun, 32, was arrested in Brazil. Al-Mamun is charged in a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas – Laredo Division, charging him with eight conspiracy and alien smuggling counts.

The enforcement operation included the execution of multiple search warrants and the additional arrests of seven Brazil-based human smugglers on Brazilian charges: Saifullah Al-Mamun, 32; Saiful Islam, 32; Tamoor Khalid, 31; Nazrul Islam, 41; Mohammad Ifran Chaudhary, 39; Mohammad Nizam Uddin, 28; and Md Bulbul Hossain, 36.

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 out of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to the United States. In return for smuggling the aliens into the US, Al-Mumun and his two co-conspirators, are alleged to have arranged to be paid in Mexico, Central America, South America, Bangladesh, and elsewhere.

“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. 

Two of the co-conspirators, both of whom are Bangladeshi nationals, were arrested in August.

Milon Miah, who was living in Tapachula, Mexico, was arrested Aug. 31 on arrival at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, to face charges in the superseding indictment for his role in the scheme to smuggle aliens into the US.

Moktar Hossain, 31, formerly residing in Monterrey, Mexico, pleaded guilty on Aug. 27 for his role in the scheme to smuggle aliens to the US for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain.

“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 (HSI) Phoenix.

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