Man admits to role in African human smuggling ring

03/30/2010

By JUAN A. LOZANO / Associated Press


An international smuggling ring that ferried illegal immigrants from Africa to the U.S. by way of South and Central America and Mexico was dealt a significant blow with the guilty plea of one of the group's members, federal authorities said Tuesday.

Samuel Abrahaley Fessahazion, 23, of the northeast African nation of Eritrea, admitted during a court hearing Monday to helping smuggle illegal immigrants to the U.S.

As part of an agreement with federal prosecutors, Fessahazion pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and two counts of encouraging and inducing illegal immigrants to come to the U.S. for financial gain. Eleven other counts against him were dropped.

"By bringing this smuggler to justice, we have broken a chain that runs from Africa to South and Central America, directly into the United States," Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said.

Defense attorney Peter Bray said he plans to present evidence at Fessahazion's sentencing hearing — scheduled for June 14 — to help explain his client's actions. Fessahazion faces up to 10 years in prison.

"We look forward to presenting Mr. Fessahazion's life story at the time of sentencing," Bray said. "There are a lot of mitigating factors."

Prosecutors say Fessahazion helped smuggle up to 24 illegal immigrants into the U.S. from June 2007 until January 2008.

According to court documents, he was the Guatemalan link of the smuggling ring.

The group would bring illegal immigrants, primarily from East Africa but also from South Africa and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and sneak them into the Western Hemisphere through Brazil. The immigrants would then be smuggled in a chainlike fashion through Venezuela and Colombia, then into Central America, through Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala, according to court documents.

Once the illegal immigrants reached Guatemala, Fessahazion would have a driver pick them up and bring them to the capital, Guatemala City.

In exchange for $700 to $800, Fessahazion would take them to the Guatemala-Mexico border and tell them how to cross into Mexico and make their way north to Reynosa, located across the Rio Grande from the Texas city of McAllen.

Once there, guides working for an unidentified smuggler known only as "Matamoros" would bring them across the Rio Grande and into the U.S. on inner tubes. The immigrants would eventually be taken to stash houses in Houston, where they would pay additional smuggling fees of up to $1,800.

Fessahazion illegally entered the U.S. in March 2008 and was granted asylum eight months later after he claimed he had traveled across Africa in 2007 and 2008 in an effort to flee persecution in Eritrea. But he was smuggling illegal immigrants during that time, authorities said.

"Breaking this global alien smuggling network puts smugglers on notice that we are coming after them and we will shut them down," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton.

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