The United States Department of Justice says that a Peruvian national and a Bahamian national have pleaded guilty to smuggling undocumented migrants to the United States for private financial gain.
Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said that Jessie Katherine Gonzales Urquizo, 37, a Peruvian national, and Irene Mildred Janette Burrows, 66, a Bahamian national, pleaded guilty to the charge.
Breuer said Urquizo pleaded guilty to three counts and Burrows pleaded guilty to two counts, before U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra in the Southern District of Florida, of bringing and attempting to bring aliens to the United States for commercial advantage and private financial gain.
According to the plea documents, Urquizo and her mother-in-law, Burrows, “facilitated the illegal smuggling of Brazilian nationals into the United States by working for a known alien smuggler in Brazil.”
It said Urquizo and Burrows provided lodging and transportation to undocumented migrants waiting on a boat to take them to the United States and charged between US$100 and US$125 per day.
The court documents said Urquizo and Burrows received instructions from Brazil-based smugglers on when and where to deliver certain undocumented migrants to waiting boats for passage to the United States.
“Urquizo and Burrows admitted that they brought undocumented migrants, all of whom are Brazilian nationals, to the United States for financial gain,” Breuer said.
