Feds: Trafficking ring busted smuggling kids over U.S.-Canadian border
Feds: Trafficking ring busted smuggling kids over U.S.-Canadian border
16 indicted; SeaTac motel owner faces prison is scheme
Federal investigators have cracked a human trafficking ring thought to have smuggled dozens of illegal immigrants – including children traveling alone – over the Canadian border.
Having indicted 16 suspects in recent months, federal prosecutors in Seattle contend the loosely knit group brought more than 70 people into the United States from India, Pakistan and South Korea. Once inside the country, they were driven or flown to at least six states, including Illinois, Texas, New York and Massachusetts.
The operation – broken up by an informant and ultimately infiltrated by an undercover federal agent – was apparently lucrative for its leaders. A SeaTac hotel owner who moved and housed the smuggling ring's customers was paid $1,000 a head just for a ride south from the U.S. side of the border.
Since the string of indictments, 11 of the 12 defendants have pleaded guilty to related charges. The other four are not yet in federal custody, according to court records.
