Thread: More illegals flying in on planes RDU Attracts Human Smuggli

RDU Attracts Human Smuggling Rings

Eyewitness News Investigates
Steve Daniels
(05/23/05 -- RALEIGH) - An Eyewitness News investigation discovered that RDU International Airport is a popular destination for human smuggling rings.

In March, we showed you how a smuggling ring brought 11 illegals from Mexico to RDU International on board a Southwest Airlines flight. But that's only the beginning of the story. Eyewitness News has learned that human smugglers are using RDU International more than you'd ever guess.
"It's happening every day," said Tom O'Connell, the agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office (ICE) in Wake County. "I would say probably, if we actually set up an office at the airport, we'd probably be arresting people every day."

Just a few weeks ago, a group of 12 illegal aliens from Mexico had tickets on a Continental Airlines flight into RDU. For some reason, 10 of them stayed behind at the Newark airport and did not take their connection to RDU. The man and woman who did make the flight would have been able to walk off the plane at RDU had they not made one mistake.

"As the flight took off from Newark, two people stood up and wanted to get off," O'Connell said. "The flight had already taken off, and that's a FAA violation to even get out of your seat."

The couple was arrested when the plan landed at RDU. O'Connell says the couple on the Continental flight followed a similar pattern on their trip to North Carolina.

Smugglers led them in a group across the Mexican border near Douglas, Arizona, for the price of $1,200 each. They traveled by car to Las Vegas, where they stayed at a "stash house" in the shadow of the glitzy casinos. After a few days, they boarded a flight out of the Las Vegas airport, bound for RDU.

"If they have a group of 10 or 12 that are destined to Raleigh, that group will pretty much be intact all the way through the different legs of the smuggling."

We reported March 29 about O'Connell and his agents busting another group of 11 men from Mexico getting smuggled into RDU on a Southwest Airlines flight.

O'Connell says the smuggling rings are changing their ways. The used to pack their cargo into trucks, but they're now using airlines. Despite all of the security at airports, the chances of getting caught are actually greater on the highway.

"You have state, you have local police, you have the county sheriff's office all doing interdiction on all of the major corridors," O'Connell said. "If you've got 10 or 12 people in the vehicle, your chances of being pulled over are probably greater than if you had 10 people getting on board a plane."

Our investigation also found that illegal aliens are heading to RDU because newspaper ads in Mexico tell people that North Carolina is the place to go if they want a good job.

"Everybody we interview is coming for employment," O'Connell said. "With construction, landscaping, a lot of these agriculture areas, a lot of the farms, I just think there's a lot of employment here for that type of work -- that these people are making their way here to solely do that, sending money back to their families in Mexico."

Once they're here, it's easy to get counterfeit documents to make illegals look like they're here legally. O'Connell and his agents have discovered a staggering number of phony documents in recent busts. They've found counterfeit green cards, Social Security cards and Mexican birth certificates.

O'Connell says his agents are trying to target the top people in the smuggling rings, but it's not easy. The illegal aliens tear up their airline tickets once they're in flight, making it difficult for agents to follow a paper trail.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?secti ... id=3096626

With the ground invasion going strong, I guess they are now assaulting from the air. It's time to lock up some employers!!

Do these people actually have legal photo ID to show the airline? Why doesn't ICE just step in and shut down this activity?

It looks like we need to stop all flights to and from Mexico. The invasion of America should be a declaration of war.

Chain of events?

Airline employees not doing their jobs by checking IDs?

Are airline supervisors not doing their jobs?

PAX on One Way tickets not being screened more carefully?

Suspicious travel patterns going unnoticed?

They do it all the time and nobody notices?

added to homepage

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=1678

"I would say probably, if we actually set up an office at the airport, we'd probably be arresting people every day."

Have at it O'Connell. You certainly don't seem to be too busy busting emplyers.

Originally Posted by Cindy

It looks like we need to stop all flights to and from Mexico. The invasion of America should be a declaration of war.

The world gets larger and instantly more manageable if planes don't carry passengers.

How do they get on the flights inside the US without visas or a customs check? They should not be boarded without this check, what kind of ID are they showing to purchase tickets and board? Mexican ID's, how do they explain they are in the country, on vacation? Where are their stamped passports? For cryin out loud I have to practically show my shorts to get boarded on a plane these days, how do they do it?

Easily done. Illegals make the very best forged documents. Profiling isn't allowed. And even if security guards or local police become aware, why would they stop them? No one will take responsibility, the feds won't take them off your hands. Your eight hour shift would be screwed if you tried to report them to someone else, who doesn't want the problem either.