RP a transit point for human smuggling

A human smuggling ring that sends illegal Chinese immigrants to the United States has been busted in a sting operation by the US and Philippine authorities, the immigration bureau said yesterday.

The alleged gang leaders, French citizen Alexander Wei and his Chinese wife Bing Xei, were arrested in Miami, Florida after a five-month operation, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said, quoting the US Embassy.

Wei’s son Jacques, a suspected co-conspirator, was also arrested with another Chinese suspect and five Chinese illegal immigrants at Manila airport, Domingo said.

The US and Philippinr governments have established that a multimillion-dollar operation by smugglers known as "snakeheads" has been funneling immigrants to the United States since at least 1999 using Miami as a port of entry.

Armed with fake visas, the Chinese immigrants would be sent on a round-the-world tour to give them cover as legitimate travellers and tourists, Domingo said.

The immigrants would first travel from China to the Philippines and several other Asian countries that Domingo did not identify. These countries would then be used as a jump-off point for smuggling routes to France, then on to Suriname or the French territories in the Caribbean, Jamaica or the Bahamas.

From the West Indies it would be a short hop to the US state of Florida.

Domingo said the families of the illegal immigrants are charged as much as $50,000 each by the smuggling ring.

During the sting operation, undercover agents took cash from the elder Wei to bring five groups of Chinese immigrants to the United States.