Human trafficking ring busted
Sixteen travel agents could soon be booking a trip for themselves to prison. They're accused of putting illegal immigrants on flights taking off from McCarran Airport. It's being called one of the largest human smuggling operations ever uncovered.
The smugglers were based in Arizona, but police say they routinely routed their customers through Las Vegas.
This is a problem News 3 has been investigating for years. Our undercover video showed virtually no effort to catch illegal immigrants who use McCarran Airport as their jumping off point for other parts of the country.
On Thursday, law enforcement agencies in Arizona announced that they had broken up a major smuggling ring involving at least six travel agencies.
Investigators say the group helped people get bogus identity cards, smuggling nearly 7,000 undocumented aliens onto airline flights. The majority of those flights were out of McCarran Airport because, they said, travelers received less "scrutiny" in Las Vegas than they would have at other airports.
"Las Vegas airport does an investigation there and for a couple days they work with us; ICE works with us," Lieutenant Vince Piano of the Phoenix Police said. "They say, 'let's go ahead and hit them.' They worked it for a day, they were so overloaded they called and said they couldn't do this again because our detention centers are filled."
McCarran Airport released a statement late Thursday afternoon indicating that airport officials were aware of the case and have cooperated with immigration officials in the past. But no mention has been made of any plans to step beef up enforcement efforts in the future.
http://kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=6301002 video inside
Sixteen travel agents could soon be booking a trip for themselves to prison. They're accused of putting illegal immigrants on flights taking off from McCarran Airport. It's being called one of the largest human smuggling operations ever uncovered.
The smugglers were based in Arizona, but police say they routinely routed their customers through Las Vegas.
This is a problem News 3 has been investigating for years. Our undercover video showed virtually no effort to catch illegal immigrants who use McCarran Airport as their jumping off point for other parts of the country.
On Thursday, law enforcement agencies in Arizona announced that they had broken up a major smuggling ring involving at least six travel agencies.
Investigators say the group helped people get bogus identity cards, smuggling nearly 7,000 undocumented aliens onto airline flights. The majority of those flights were out of McCarran Airport because, they said, travelers received less "scrutiny" in Las Vegas than they would have at other airports.
"Las Vegas airport does an investigation there and for a couple days they work with us; ICE works with us," Lieutenant Vince Piano of the Phoenix Police said. "They say, 'let's go ahead and hit them.' They worked it for a day, they were so overloaded they called and said they couldn't do this again because our detention centers are filled."
McCarran Airport released a statement late Thursday afternoon indicating that airport officials were aware of the case and have cooperated with immigration officials in the past. But no mention has been made of any plans to step beef up enforcement efforts in the future.
http://kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=6301002 video inside
