GUATEMALAN CITIZEN PLEADS GUILTY FOR ROLE IN HUMAN SMUGGLING CONSPIRACY

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

 Friday, November 20, 2015

Foreign National Pleads Guilty to Human Smuggling Charges

A foreign national pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and a human smuggling charge for her role in a scheme to smuggle undocumented migrants from India into the United States, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson for the Southern District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Shane Folden of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) in San Antonio.

On April 23, 2015, Rosa Astrid Umanzor-Lopez, 36, a citizen of Guatemala, was extradited to the United States from Guatemala to face one count of conspiracy to smuggle undocumented migrants into the United States for profit and five counts of human smuggling charges in the Southern District of Texas.

At the plea hearing and in related court documents, Umanzor-Lopez admitted that between January 2011 and her arrest in Guatemala on Feb. 4, 2014, she and other conspirators recruited individuals in India who were willing to pay large sums of money to be smuggled into the United States.  For their smuggling operations, Umanzor-Lopez and her co-conspirators used a network of facilitators to transport groups of undocumented migrants from India through South America and Central America and then into the United States by air travel, automobiles, water craft and foot.  Many of these smuggling events involved illegal entry into the United States via the U.S.-Mexico border near McAllen and Laredo, Texas.

To this date, three co-conspirators have been convicted and sentenced.  Umanzor-Lopez’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 4, 2016 in Houston.

The investigation was conducted by ICE-HSI agents in McAllen, with the assistance of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Alien Smuggling Interdiction Unit.  This case is being prosecuted jointly by Trial Attorney Ann Marie E. Ursini of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leo J. Leo III and Casey MacDonald of the Southern District of Texas.  The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided significant support with the defendant’s extradition.

The investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and HSI.  The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks, or present grave humanitarian concerns.  ECT has dedicated investigative, intelligence and prosecutorial resources.  ECT coordinates and receives assistance from other U.S. government agencies and foreign law enforcement authorities.

WOMAN TO SERVE PRISON TERM IN FORCED LABOR CASE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Mankato, Minnesota, Woman Sentenced in Forced Labor Case

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson sentenced Tieu Tran, 59, of Mankato, Minn., to serve one year and one day in prison followed by 1 year supervised probation upon release, the Justice Department announced today.  Tran pleaded guilty to one count of forced labor trafficking on March 25, 2014.  Tran is the former owner and manager of Nails By Jordan, a nail salon located in Mankato.

According to evidence presented in court proceedings and documents, in 2008, Tran recruited a woman from Vietnam to travel to the United States using false promises of legal immigration status and a high-paying job.  In reality, Tran smuggled the victim and two other Vietnamese nationals across the southern U.S.-Mexico border, imposed a significant debt upon her, and forced her to pay down the smuggling debt by working at Tran’s son’s Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Saigon, in Mankato.

Tran admitted to compelling the victim to work long hours without paying her as promised, using a scheme, plan and pattern of coercion, including manipulation of debts, isolation, and intimidation that held the victim in fear, knowing that the victim was without legal status and money, did not speak English, feared losing her family home in Vietnam to creditors, and had nowhere else to turn for subsistence.

“This defendant callously preyed on the victim’s vulnerabilities and exploited her labor through intimidation, debts, and isolation,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark Kappelhoff for the Civil Rights Division.  “Human trafficking is an affront to human rights and to our nation’s core values, and the Justice Department is committed to vindicating the rights of the victims and to bringing human traffickers to justice.”

“Prosecuting human traffickers is a priority of this Office,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger for the District of Minnesota.  “Tieu Tran smuggled this victim into the United States who she forced to work long hours in her nail salon by isolating and intimidating her. This kind of abuse simply is unjust.  I am proud to work with the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation to end human trafficking in Minnesota.”

“The FBI remains committed to ensuring that innocent persons are not exploited by human traffickers,” said Special Agent in Charge Richard T. Thornton for the FBI Minneapolis Division.  “There will be no safe harbor granted to those who prey upon vulnerable people.  Those who exploit other human beings will continue to be high priority targets for the FBI.”

As part of her plea agreement, Tran agreed to nullify all debts imposed upon the victim, and upon seven other individuals.  The Court further ordered that Tran pay 51,844 in restitution to the victim.

This case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney William Nolan of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Steinkamp of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota.

TWO HUMAN SMUGGLERS SENTENCED IN MIAMI TO PRISON

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Thursday, March 21, 2013

Brazilian Husband and Wife Sentenced in Florida for Alien Smuggling

Brazilian nationals Juliana Rose Tome-Froes and her husband, Fabio Rodrigues Froes, were sentenced today in Miami to 60 months and 46 months in prison, respectively, for smuggling undocumented migrants to the United States for profit, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton.

Tome-Froes, 36, and Froes, 49, were sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Federico A. Moreno in the Southern District of Florida. In addition to the prison sentences, Judge Moreno ordered each defendant to forfeit $150,000 in illegal proceeds and ordered the removal of both defendants to Brazil after the completion of their sentences.

On Jan. 16, 2013, Tome-Froes and Froes pleaded guilty to charges arising from their involvement in human smuggling. According to court documents, from at least October 2008 until approximately September 2010, the defendants organized, operated and managed a human smuggling network that spanned from Brazil to France, England, The Bahamas and the United States. The defendants met with undocumented migrants and negotiated forms of payment to be smuggled into the United States. Before the undocumented migrants departed Brazil, the defendants instructed them to act like tourists and explained that the itinerary through Europe would support a tourist cover story. In exchange for approximately $16,000, Tome-Froes, with assistance from Froes, arranged air transportation from Brazil to Paris, then London and Nassau, Bahamas. Tome-Froes arranged the undocumented migrants’ lodging in Paris and Nassau, and then instructed them to fly to Freeport, Bahamas, where they waited for a boat to transport them to the United States. For the final leg into the United States, Tome-Froes coordinated with various individuals in South Florida to pilot a small boat to Freeport, which picked up the undocumented migrants and transported them to the United States. According to court documents, the defendants knew the undocumented migrants did not have authorization to enter the United States.

The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Jay Bauer of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marton Gyires of the Southern District of Florida. The investigation was conducted by ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Miami.