Bangladeshi citizen Saifullah Al-Mamun, 39, has appeared for trial in a US court. He was brought to the United States from Brazil on charges of involvement with an international criminal human-smuggling ring. After his extradition from Brazil on July 8, he was produced in court for the first time on Monday in Laredo, Texas. A superseding indictment charges Saifullah with taking part in a conspiracy to illegally smuggle people from Bangladesh to the United States. The information came from a press release by the US Department of Justice.
According to court records, Saifullah Al-Mamun and his associates, 46-year-old Mohammad Milon Hossain and 38-year-old Moktar Hossain, all Bangladeshi citizens, were linked to a human-smuggling ring. They helped large numbers of people enter the United States illegally through Sao Paulo in Brazil and various places in South America, Central America and Mexico, and the people concerned paid the smugglers thousands of dollars for the illegal journey. Saifullah Al-Mamun was arrested in Brazil on October 31, 2019. Mohammad Milon Hossain and Moktar Hossain have previously pleaded guilty and each been sentenced to 46 months in prison.
Saifullah Al-Mamun is charged with conspiring to bring people illegally into the United States, smuggling people multiple times for financial gain, and encouraging illegal entry. If convicted on all the financial-gain smuggling counts, he could face a minimum of five and a maximum of 15 years in prison, and up to 10 more years if convicted on the other counts of aiding illegal entry and conspiracy. The announcement was made jointly by Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, US Attorney Aaron Reitz for the Southern District of Texas, and Jason T. Stevens, special agent in charge of the Phoenix office of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). HSI Phoenix is conducting the investigation with the cooperation of Brazil’s federal police, Colombia’s national police and other international agencies, and the case is being handled by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA). Every accused person is considered innocent until proven guilty in court.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report