Pakistani Man Pleads Guilty in U.S. Human Smuggling Case
WASHINGTON — A Pakistani national has pleaded guilty in the United States to leading an international human smuggling operation that prosecutors said used fake film production companies to move migrants through Latin America and toward the U.S.-Mexico border.
Abbas Ali Haider, 49, of Sialkot, Pakistan, admitted to running a years-long conspiracy that brought Pakistani nationals into the United States illegally, according to court documents cited by the Justice Department.
Prosecutors said Haider operated two sham companies, Diamond TV World Productions and Multimedia Advertising Ltd., to obtain visas under the appearance of legitimate business travel. From September 2019 to September 2023, he secured visas for individuals traveling to Ecuador, Cuba and Colombia, with the migrants falsely presented as employees working on film projects.
Authorities said the migrants’ actual destination was the United States. After reaching Latin America, they were routed toward the southern U.S. border, where they crossed illegally into California, Texas and Arizona.
Haider charged migrants as much as $40,000 each for the journey, officials said.
He was extradited to the United States from Mexico in July 2025 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States for private financial gain and bringing in illegal aliens for profit.
Haider is scheduled to be sentenced July 30. He faces at least three years in prison and up to 10 years. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after reviewing the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations Calexico, with assistance from HSI offices in Brasilia, Quito, Tijuana and the Caribbean, as well as the HSI Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Miami and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also assisted. (Source: IANS)
