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MEXICO CITY — The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions Thursday against a Sierra Leone man suspected of smuggling thousands of migrants from Asia and Africa into the United States.
The Treasury Department said the ring, allegedly run by Abdul Karim Conteh, provided false documents to send migrants to the border and offered advice on how to cross the border. The ring also allegedly sent some migrants to the border through Nicaragua, a Central American country that has been used as a springboard for migrant smuggling because of its lax visa requirements.
The smuggling group’s clients come from more than a dozen countries, including China, Iran, Russia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Karim Kant was arrested in Tijuana, Mexico on July 11. The United States is seeking Kant’s extradition on federal migrant smuggling charges.
Also sanctioned Thursday were his Mexican wife, Veronica Roblero, and two others from Sierra Leone and Togo.
The U.S. State Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the agency responsible for combating illicit funds and money laundering, said the gang was suspected of transferring funds collected from immigrants to help them cross the border illegally from the United States.
The sanctions freeze the financial and other assets of the targeted countries in the United States and prohibit U.S. citizens from engaging in any transactions with them.
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