Bangladeshi imprisoned for trafficking fellow countrymen into US via Mexico

A Bangladeshi man was sentenced to 46 months in prison followed by "three years of supervised release" for his role in trafficking Bangladeshis into the United States via Mexico.

The convict -- Moktar Hossain -- admitted that between March 2017 and August 2018, he trafficked Bangladeshi nationals into the USA through the Texas border in exchange for payments.

Moktar operated out of Monterrey, Mexico, where he maintained accommodation in a hotel that housed migrants on their way to the United States. He paid drivers to transport them to the US-Mexico border, and gave the migrants instruction on how to cross the Rio Grande River, according to a statement issued today by the US Embassy in Dhaka.

"The defendant was a key player in an organized smuggling network that operated for profit and preyed on Bangladeshi nationals who wanted to enter the United States illegally," said Acting Assistant Attorney General David P. Burns of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

"This sentence serves as a clear deterrent to participants of such transnational criminal organizations who seek to undermine the security of our borders by illegally facilitating the travel of foreigners into the United States for a financial gain."

The investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) programme, a joint partnership between the Justice Department's Criminal Division and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).