A Bangladeshi national has been arrested by the US authorities on the charges of illegally sneaking in people from his country into America, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
Milon Miah, who was living in Tapachula, Mexico and arrested on August 1 during arrival at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, is charged with bringing 15 Bangladeshi nationals to the US at the Texas border in exchange for payment.
Miah allegedly maintained a hotel in Tapachula where he housed and fed aliens and provided them with plane tickets to locations in northern Mexico where the aliens were met by other smugglers who transported them to the US border.
One of his co-conspirators in the smuggling operation, Moktar Hossain, pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to bring an alien to the United States as well as several related smuggling charges, the department said in a statement.
Miah was presented Tuesday before the US Magistrate Judge Dena Palmero in the Southern District of Texas for his initial appearance.
At the hearing, Judge Palmero ordered that Miah be held pending transfer to Laredo for further criminal proceedings.
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"Human smuggling rings endanger the security of the United States," said Assistant Attorney General Brian A Benczkowski of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
"This arrest sends a strong message that the Department is dedicated to holding accountable those who conspire to subvert our nation's immigration laws for their own profit," he added.
The arrest of Milon Miah represents a significant joint effort in ensuring national security and public safety, said Special Agent in Charge Shane Folden of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Antonio.