Human Smuggler Sentenced to 31 Months in Prison

Human Smuggler Sentenced to 31 Months in Prison

A Pakistani citizen was sentenced to 31 months in prison for his role in a scheme to smuggle undocumented migrants from Pakistan into the United States, prosecutors announced.

Sharafat Ali Khan, 32, a Pakistani citizen and former resident of Brazil, pleaded guilty on April 12 to one count of conspiracy to smuggle undocumented migrants into the United States for profit before U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton of the District of Columbia, according to Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Khan was extradited to the United States from Qatar on July 13, 2016, and following his prison term, he will be deported back to Pakistan.

“Combatting human smuggling and illegal migration is one of the highest priorities of the agency, and we will continue to work with our domestic and international law enforcement partners to identify and disrupt smuggling networks operating across the globe,” Blanco said.

U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu said Khan was at the center of a vast human smuggling network that preyed on the desperation of foreign nationals hoping to get into the United States.

Special Agent in Charge Angel M. Melendez of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New York said Khan organized an intricate network that was open to the highest bidder to transport undocumented migrants, regardless of who they were, from Pakistan and elsewhere through Brazil and Central America and then into the United States.

Between March 2014 and May 2016, Khan and other co-conspirators organized and arranged the unlawful smuggling of large numbers of undocumented migrants to the United States, according to admissions in the plea agreement. Khan admitted to managing safe houses for the migrants and arranging a network of associates in other countries to serve as escorts during different legs of the smuggling route.

The investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the agency’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 significant investigative challenges.

Khan was a primary organizer or leader of the conspiracy, the court found at sentencing.

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