Pakistani Citizen Sentenced to 31 Months in Prison for Human Smuggling Conspiracy Charge

WASHINGTON—A Pakistani citizen was sentenced yesterday in the District of Columbia to 31 months in prison on a human smuggling charge, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr. for the District of Columbia; John Morton, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Miami Division.

Muhammad Abid Hussain, 27, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates. On January 31, 2012, a federal jury in Washington, D.C. found Hussain guilty of conspiring to encourage and induce an individual to come to the United States unlawfully.

According to the evidence presented at trial, in February and March 2011, Hussain and a co-conspirator conducted a human smuggling operation in Quito, Ecuador that attempted to smuggle an individual from Pakistan to the United States. No individuals or material were actually smuggled from Pakistan as part of the operation. Hussain was arrested in Miami on March 13, 2011.

Hussain was acquitted of a second charge of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization relating to the same conduct.

The investigation was conducted by the ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) attaché office in Quito, Ecuador, with the HSI office in Atlanta, the Miami Division of the FBI, and the Ecuadorian National Police.

The investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and HSI. The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks or present grave humanitarian concerns. ECT has dedicated investigative, intelligence, and prosecutorial resources. ECT coordinates and receives assistance from other U.S. government agencies and foreign law enforcement authorities.

The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs, the U.S. National Central Bureau of INTERPOL, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Embassy in Quito, and the government of Ecuador provided invaluable support.

The case was prosecuted jointly by prosecutors from the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the Criminal Division, the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.