Southeast Asia- US Connection

Washington: An Indian has been sentenced to three years in prison for trafficking women from India into the United States.
Kaushik Jayantibhai Thakkar, 33, along with Brazilian national Fabiano Augusto Amorim, was sentenced  to three years in prison for their roles in smuggling undocumented migrants to the US for private financial gain, the acting assistant US attorney general Mythili Raman said.  Thakkar and Amorim were also sentenced to serve two years of supervised release, as per the order of the US District Judge Ewing Werlein in the southern district of Texas. On December 2, 2012, and January 4, 2013,  Thakkar and Amorim pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bring undocumented migrants into the US for profit and to one count of unlawfully bringing two undocumented migrants into the United States for profit.	Using a network they transported groups of undocumented migrants from locations within India through South America, Central America and the Caribbean and then into the US by various means, including by air travel, automobiles, water craft and foot, the justice department said. Many of these smuggling events involved illegal entry into the US via the border between the United States and Mexico near McAllen and Laredo, Texas, it added. Source:  The Times of India  (published on 18 May, 2013)