Bhavin Patel, Smuggling, New Jersey 2018

A brazen smuggling operation spanning across continents has come to an end with the guilty plea of Bhavin Patel, an Indian national, in Newark, New Jersey.

Patel, 38, of India, pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle foreign nationals into the United States for private financial gain before U.S. District Judge John M. Vazquez.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Patel was the mastermind behind a smuggling operation that recruited Indian nationals and others to pay fees in exchange for passage to the United States.

HSI agents received information that Patel's smuggling organization was attempting to find methods to bring foreign nationals from India into the United States. An undercover law enforcement officer posing as a smuggler began meeting with Patel in Bangkok, Thailand in October 2013.

Patel told the undercover officer that he wanted to smuggle Indian nationals into the United States. On three different occasions, Patel or his conspirator transported Indian nationals to an airport in Thailand, at which point the undercover officer would presumably use his contacts to smuggle them into the United States via commercial airline flights.

Patel agreed to wire down payments for each individual to be smuggled into the United States and to pay a balance of tens of thousands of dollars for each individual once the foreign nationals arrived in the United States. Over the ensuing months, Patel arranged for six Indian nationals to be brought to Thailand for smuggling into the United States via Newark Liberty International Airport.

Patel was arrested on December 7, 2018, upon his arrival at Newark Liberty. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum potential sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for July 9, 2019.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/indian-national-admits-conspiring-smuggle-foreign-nationals-united-states-commercial