Traffickers Caught Smuggling Middle Easterners into US
Jim Kouri, CPP
August 28, 2005
Minas Mirza, 42, also known as “Jack” and “Nino,” of Warren, Michigan, pleaded guilty on August 19, 2005, to two counts of alien smuggling involving illegal aliens from Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq and Jordan.
Mirza, who entered his guilty pleas before Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, faces a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment, admitting that he brought two aliens into the United States for cash payments. Mirza also faces a fine of $250,000.
Mirza’s guilty plea arose from his being charged along with three other defendants with smuggling aliens, including citizens of Iraq and other countries in the Middle East, into the United States primarily through South America. The defendants were charged in a five-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, charging them with conspiracy to smuggle aliens into the United States beginning in early 2001 up through the present and bringing unauthorized aliens to the United States for "commercial advantage or private financial gain."
According to officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defendant Neeran Zaia owned a business called Universal Investment & Law Services, which she used as a front for alleged alien smuggling activities, advertising in Detroit media outlets, including an Arab-language magazine. Ms. Zaia and a coconspirator also reportedly operated “Saudi-Jordan,” a travel agency located in Amman, Jordan, and met there with migrants who wished to enter the United States.
The indictment alleges that Ms. Zaia and a coconspirator recruited aliens in Iraq and Jordan who wished to be taken to the United States in exchange for the payment or promised payment of money often for thousands of dollars. Ms. Zaia promised the migrants that she could procure the appropriate documents to facilitate that travel in exchange for those payments.
Ms. Zaia and other conspirators promised aliens US visas, but after securing partial payments for those visas, instead provided the aliens with visas from countries in South America. The defendants would then transport the aliens to South American countries as a staging area for entry into the United States, and then once the aliens were in South America, they would demand additional money to bring them into the United States.
In the course of his guilty plea, Mirza admitted his role in the conspiracy and specifically to his having coordinated the arrangements to smuggle two aliens into the United States for personal profit and to having personally driven two aliens from Washington, DC to Detroit, Michigan.
Sources: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DC US District Court, National Security Institute, National Association of Chiefs of Police
Mirza, who entered his guilty pleas before Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, faces a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment, admitting that he brought two aliens into the United States for cash payments. Mirza also faces a fine of $250,000.
Mirza’s guilty plea arose from his being charged along with three other defendants with smuggling aliens, including citizens of Iraq and other countries in the Middle East, into the United States primarily through South America. The defendants were charged in a five-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, charging them with conspiracy to smuggle aliens into the United States beginning in early 2001 up through the present and bringing unauthorized aliens to the United States for "commercial advantage or private financial gain."
According to officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defendant Neeran Zaia owned a business called Universal Investment & Law Services, which she used as a front for alleged alien smuggling activities, advertising in Detroit media outlets, including an Arab-language magazine. Ms. Zaia and a coconspirator also reportedly operated “Saudi-Jordan,” a travel agency located in Amman, Jordan, and met there with migrants who wished to enter the United States.
The indictment alleges that Ms. Zaia and a coconspirator recruited aliens in Iraq and Jordan who wished to be taken to the United States in exchange for the payment or promised payment of money often for thousands of dollars. Ms. Zaia promised the migrants that she could procure the appropriate documents to facilitate that travel in exchange for those payments.
Ms. Zaia and other conspirators promised aliens US visas, but after securing partial payments for those visas, instead provided the aliens with visas from countries in South America. The defendants would then transport the aliens to South American countries as a staging area for entry into the United States, and then once the aliens were in South America, they would demand additional money to bring them into the United States.
In the course of his guilty plea, Mirza admitted his role in the conspiracy and specifically to his having coordinated the arrangements to smuggle two aliens into the United States for personal profit and to having personally driven two aliens from Washington, DC to Detroit, Michigan.
Sources: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DC US District Court, National Security Institute, National Association of Chiefs of Police
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