Replies

UPDATE:

For The Record - The IPT Blog

“Man Gets Probation In Plot To Smuggle Somalis into U.S.”

by IPT News • Jun 15, 2010 at 4:03 pm

SNIPPET: “Anthony Joseph Tracy, who confessed to helping 272 Somalis travel illegally to the United States through Cuba last year, has been sentenced to 4 months in prison for his role in the scheme. With credit for time served, Tracy, who is thought to be cooperating with law enforcement, was released from jail June 4 and placed on probation.

Tracy said some of the individuals who approached him were associated with the terror organization al-Shabaab. Prosecutors said Tracy, (who converted to Islam while in prison during the 1990s) failed a lie-detector test when he denied helping members of that Al Qaeda-linked group.

Much of the court record in the case has been sealed or redacted. According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court February 5, Immigration and Customs Enforcement by (ICE) Special Agent Thomas Eyre, “Tracy stated that he knew that the final destination for the Somalis for whom he obtained visas was the United States, with the visas fraudulently obtained in Kenya being the first step in the process.”

Tracy, an informant for ICE and another unidentified federal agency, has admitted that after fraudulently obtaining the Cuban visas some of the Somalis traveled from Kenya to Dubai to Moscow to Cuba to South America with a goal of entering the United States. American officials have been unable to locate most of the Somalis involved in the fraud scheme and do not know if any have entered the country.”