(WatchDogReport.org) – The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that authorities arrested the alleged leader of a human trafficking ring, Abdul Karim Conteh, in Mexico. However, the agency said that police are still trying to find his wife, Veronica Roblero Pivaral, who remains at large as of this writing.
In a statement, the DOJ explained that the 42-year-old man from Sierra Leone was arrested for a smuggling operation that the agency said he carried out. It added that Conteh was the mastermind behind numerous smuggling operations into the United States and had also conspired with criminals in Mexico and many other nations around the world to get people into the country illegally. The Justice Department said that many of the people who Conteh smuggled had to pay him “thousands of dollars” so they could get into the United States.
In a press release, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said that people like Conteh take advantage of the vulnerable to get money. He also said that thanks to “our partners” around the world and in the Biden administration, the agency was able to arrest Conteh. Mayorkas added that migrants who want to come to the United States need to know that no one can trust smugglers, as they are “ruthless” individuals who will lie and risk their lives just to get their profit.
While the Justice Department didn’t specify the number of people that Conteh smuggled into the United States during his time as a smuggler, some reporters said that it was thousands and that he was even present on some of their crossings. They added that Conteh didn’t smuggle too many people from Latin American nations, as the majority of those he smuggled were from Egypt, Mauritania, Senegal, Cameroon, Somalia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.
US Attorney for California’s Southern District Tara McGrath said that Conteh’s arrest unraveled a worldwide web of human smuggling into the country.
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