Newark Man Sentenced for Role in Immigrant Smuggling Ring

Illegal immigrants paid thousands to enter America
September 13, 2012

Nacip Pires of Newark was sentenced to 46 months in prison Thursday for overseeing an operation that brought hundreds of illegal immigrants into the country, including women who became strippers at bars in Newark, US Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement.

Pires, 48, worked with five others to smuggle immigrants from Brazil, India and other nations. One of those co-conspirators, Claudinei Pereira Mota, 35, is also from Newark and pleaded guilty late last year to a charge of conspiring to bring aliens into the country.

The operation, which ran from January 2008 to June 2011, involved aliens who paid from between $13,000 and $25,000 each to be smuggled into the country along one of two routes: through Central America and across the Mexican border or by boat from St. Maarten and the Bahamas to Puerto Rico or Florida.

Many of the illegal immigrants were young women from Brazil who agreed to repay part of their smuggling debt after arriving in the United States by working as dancers in strip clubs in Newark and elsewhere.
Related Topics:us attorney paul fishman

Newark Man Sentenced for Role in Immigrant Smuggling Ring - Newark, NJ Patch