Feds net 13 desi motel owners in US

Washington DC:The US Department of Homeland Security has indicted 13 Indian American motel owners in Arizona.

The group is charged with aiding and abetting the smuggling of illegal aliens to the US.

This move is part of the federal agency's crackdown on smugglers and those who profit and collaborate with criminal networks.

In February this year, federal investigators received a tip that some motel owners in Mesa, Arizona, were harbouring illegal aliens by renting out rooms to human traffickers.

Undercover officers, posing as smugglers booked rooms in six motels pretending to house their human cargo.

The feds say that during their nine-month investigation, they found the hoteliers were aware of, and even profited from, the racket.

13 Indian-American hoteliers ? most with the surname of Patel ? are now facing indictments by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

All of the 13 defendants have been charged with one count of harboring illegal aliens, an offense if proved carries a maximum jail time of 10-yrs and a $250,000 fine.

While 12 defendants have been arrested and are being held at an Arizona Federal Detention Center, another suspect Roshankumar Bharatbhai Bhakta is a fugitive and is being sought by the authorities.

No trial date has been set so far for the Indian American defendants.

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Spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Dean Boyd, said, the federal agents posed as smugglers and told the hotel owners that they were smuggling aliens.

"Though the hotel owners charged us an excessive fee, they rented the rooms to us willingly. We were told where to park our cars and asked to rent the rooms under different names," Boyd said.

"They were essentially accessories to the crime and had been working with smuggling organisations before."

"They knowingly harbored illegal aliens in their hotels and actually making a quite bit of money off of it."

Meanwhile, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, most of whose members are Indian American business owners, has not said if the 13 indicted motel owners belong to the organisation.

The group, whose members control half of all economy lodging properties in the United States, said in a statement that: "Our organisation neither condones nor supports any covert activities that circumvent legal entry into the United States."

Boyd says that the federal department plans to seize the six motels to prevent future misuse of the properties.

"Smuggling is a tremendous worldwide business and is estimated to reap $10 billion a year from the smuggling of individuals alone," said Boyd.

"Hotel owners, who knowingly help criminal organisations, are going to be targeted."

"It's a part of the whole process, we're going to go after not only the smuggling organisations but also facilitators as well."

In the last two years, federal authorities have seized up to $27 million worth of assets as part of a nationwide investigation into hotels and motels being used as 'stash houses' for illegal aliens.