(The Center Square) – Federal agents arrested another Syrian national involved in border crimes, this time in New Mexico and west Texas.
The arrest stems from a 1.5-year-long investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations-El Paso. HSI El Paso is part of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection El Paso Sector, which includes two west Texas counties and all of New Mexico. The sector saw record illegal entries during the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.
Syrian national Jalal Maklad Adeeb was extradited to El Paso, Texas, this month after being indicted last August by a federal grand jury in the District of New Mexico. He was charged with “conspiracy to bring in illegal aliens for financial gain, bringing aliens to the United States for financial gain, and aiding and abetting.”
“Adeeb Maklad Adeeb was the leader of an international criminal network responsible for smuggling hundreds of illegal aliens into the United States through El Paso, Texas from predominantly Arabic speaking countries,” HSI El Paso Acting Special Agent in Charge Taekuk Cho said. “He was deemed a national security threat, and his extradition to the United States to face justice reflects the coordinated efforts of HSI alongside our federal and international partners.”
Federal agents working in a Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), U.S. Border Patrol, HSI Panama, U.S. Marshals Service and Department of Justice Task Force Alpha were involved in a multi-continent investigation.
According to the investigation, Maklad used Mexico City, Mexico, as a base to smuggle hundreds of Arabs from multiple countries identified as “Special Interest Aliens” into the United States. He charged them roughly $4,500 each for safe passage from South America to Mexico and into the U.S., illegally crossing international borders, according to the charges. Authorities said he collected more than $800,000 in smuggling fees.
It remains unclear if the several hundred SIA Arabs Maklad smuggled into the U.S. have been apprehended.
On March 1, HSI special agents and U.S. Marshals traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica, where Maklad had been detained. They took custody of him and facilitated his extradition to El Paso on March 4. He is being held in the Dona Ana County Detention Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and is awaiting trial.
An SIA is a noncitizen who, based “on an analysis of travel patterns,” is “known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism” who “potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or U.S. interests,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security explains.
SIA data collected by DHS has never been made public under any administration. At least 73,000 SIAs were arrested under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.
During the Biden administration-era border crisis, retired Border Patrol agents testified before Congress that they were instructed not to publicize SIA arrests. By contrast, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers working through Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, publicize SIA arrests. Their SIA arrests include men from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey among other countries, The Center Square reported.
In California, Syrians have also been indicted for visa fraud, including a former Syrian government official illegally living in the U.S. who allegedly committed torture under the Assad regime.
The DOJ-DHS JTFA investigates and prosecutes human smuggling and trafficking and related border security crimes. “Securing our borders and ensuring that we uphold national security by identifying, disrupting, and dismantling transnational criminal organizations is fundamental to Homeland Security Investigations and the HSTF,” Cho said.
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico has been increasingly prosecuting border related crimes in partnership with HSI El Paso and CBP El Paso Sector Border Patrol agents. The district covers 33 New Mexico counties and spans 180 miles of shared international border with Mexico.
In the first week in March, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported 123 border and immigration related crimes, including five for human smuggling. Many charged “had prior criminal convictions for second degree murder, aggravated assault, drug trafficking, vehicle theft, immigration documents fraud, possession of a firearm by an alien, and prior immigration offenses,” it said. “Enhanced enforcement both at the border and in the interior of the district have yielded aliens engaged in unlawful activity or with serious criminal history, including human trafficking, sexual assault and violence against children.”
