Nacip Teotonio Pires, 48, of Newark previously "pleaded guilty before a US district court to an information charging him with one count of participating in a conspiracy to bring aliens into the US illegally", Attorney Paul J Fishman said.
Judge Joseph H Rodriguez imposed the sentence yesterday in Camden federal court.
In December 2011, co-conspirators Claudinei Pereira Mota, 35; Francismar Da Conceicao, 37, and Rubens Da Silva, 40, had pleaded guilty.
From January 2008 through June 2011, the defendants conspired with each other and others to bring aliens into the US illegally from Brazil, India, and elsewhere as part of an elaborate for-profit alien smuggling scheme that involved co-conspirators in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas, and elsewhere, US Justice Department said in a statement.
Many of the customers of the scheme were young women from Brazil, most of whom agreed to repay part of their smuggling debt after arriving in the US by working as dancers in strip clubs in Newark and elsewhere, it said.
In addition to the prison term, the judge sentenced Pires to three years of supervised release.