Posted on 09/15/2002 8:24:29 AM PDT by browardchad
Two men from Pakistan and Sri Lanka were held without bail Friday on charges that they smuggled Middle Easterners into the United States through third countries for $20,000 each.
Iqbal Munawar and Chelliah Sri Kajamukam were arrested late Thursday at Miami International Airport on charges filed in New York, federal authorities said.
They made federal court appearances Friday and were ordered to return to court for bond hearings Thursday.
An Indian businessman led the smuggling ring, which illegally flew people to Miami and New York and carried them to the United States by boat, FBI agent Timothy Ryan wrote in a court affidavit.
Nathu Babu Dhamelia, allegedly the head of a five-member ring, has issued more than 1,500 Cuban visas to people trying to reach the United States, according to an anonymous tip, the affidavit said.
His whereabouts were not immediately known. Dhamelia was described by the tipster as an honorary Cuban consul.
The Customs Service in Miami intercepted a DHL package addressed to Dhamelia in New Delhi last month, Ryan's report said. The package contained 55 blank Cuban tourist visas and two blank Jamaican immigration cards.
Kajamukam, 37, is a Canadian citizen born in Sri Lanka. He was arrested after flying Thursday from the Bahamas to Miami, after a U.S. immigration inspector in the Bahamas found several blank Canadian immigration forms for sponsoring the arrival of immigrants in the United States.
Munawar, 40, a Pakistani national, was arrested Thursday night at the Miami airport. He initially denied it but later told airport agents that he and Dhamelia traveled together in Ecuador on import-export business this year.
An Ecuadorean flight manifest showed Dhamelia and Munawar were assigned to seats next to each other on a domestic flight last April 30.
The investigation was based on an anonymous letter received at the U.S. consulate in Bombay, India, in June 2001.
The letter said Dhamelia and Kajamukam were involved in an attempt to smuggle 29 people by ship from Ecuador through Panama to the United States, Ryan's affidavit said.
Interviewed Tuesday in Mahwah, N.J., Dhamelia's wife told Ryan and other FBI agents that her husband smuggled people by air from Jamaica and by boat.
Munawar Iqbal is the Pakistani who was turned up as registered agent for Intrigue Jewelers, the stores that were raided and shut down by the Feds in Philadelphia and Florida some months back, as researched on this thread:
Grampa Dave, the Intrigue Jewelers story pops up again!!
What am I missing here?
I always wondered why some people would make light, or jokes about something like this. Are they just being cute, sophomoric? Does this issue bother and scare them so bad they feel a need to be comical about it? Kinda like a security blanket?
Do people like you attempt to minimize this, to push an agenda? Do you think that our out of control immigration "free for all", compounded by the millions upon millions that are out right invading this county, is some kind of a funny, humorous joke?
This apparently was a practice run, the plan being to keep enough people sick on election day so that they could vote their own slate into power.
I agree with Bill O'Reilly -- we need to have the military patrol our borders since the present system is too ineffective and just kick out all illegals without a fuss.
I don't find their actions humorous. I find their net worth to be rather pathetic and sick,....not much more redeeming than a hypothetical hijacker of a DHL van seeking to fly it into a skyscraper.
The out of control "free for all" that detained people on Ellis Island until they were met by relatives? (My grandmother had to stay in that hellhole overnight, with six kids, one a babe in arms, because my grandfather didn't get there in time, as noted on the ship's manifest; and he, before her, was not allowed to leave until picked up by his brother-in-law). The same "out of control" immigration that sent heartbroken immigrants back to their country of origin if they didn't pass a physical? The same "out of control" immigration which allowed people fleeing starvation and war to come here, but didn't give them a dime of the public dole to earn their keep?
The same "out of control" immigration that, in spite of the hardships, discrimination and poverty made our ancestors determined to become "Americans," and not some hyphenated multi-culti with divided loyalty to the "homeland?" -- or worse yet, arriving here with thinly-veiled hatred for their adopted land, and determined to use their new-found freedom to subvert freedom?
Shall I go on?
personally I'd like to see justice dealt on the spot when they are smoked out.
Stay Safe !
Personally I'd like to see justice dealt on the spot when they are smoked out if they even act like they are resisting.
RE those cowards who surrender, IMHO all these @ssholes should be charged and brought to justice as accessory to murder with 2801 counts regardless of what rock they hide under.
I really like that accessory to murder with 2801 counts. That is what all of this about.
Do go soft on me at this late stage Grampa :o) Gotta show these toads no mercy. Just like they do on those who are innocent and killed as they go about their life of just being Americans......
Stay Safe, Stay Tough !
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