A Colombian smuggler’s guilty plea is shedding new light on a deadly route to the United States after a boat carrying 42 people vanished at sea and a top Justice Department official said the danger would not have ended if they reached land.Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 41, also known as "El Calvo," pleaded guilty in federal court in El Paso, Texas, after being extradited from Colombia for his role in a smuggling conspiracy that prosecutors said used bribery and maritime routes to move migrants north.The boat left Colombia’s San Andrés Island for Nicaragua on Oct.21, 2023, carrying approximately 40 migrants and two captains.
It never arrived, and no one aboard has been seen or heard from since."This was a particularly sad and disturbing situation," Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva, who leads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, told Fox News Digital.OVERCROWDED MIGRANT VESSEL WITH 240 PEOPLE ON BOARD INTERCEPTED NEAR TURKS AND CAICOSA Colombian officer stands beside Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, who pleaded guilty to participating in a human smuggling conspiracy tied to a boat that vanished with 42 people aboard.(The Department of Justice)"These 40 individuals and the two boat captains, once they set out from San Andrés Island to Nicaragua, were never heard from again," Duva said.
"These individuals are, of course, missing and presumed dead, and it appears that there were no survivors."ELEVEN INDICTED IN ALLEGED TEXAS SMUGGLING SCHEME THAT LEFT 7 MIGRANTS DEAD IN SHIPPING CONTAINERDuva said the disappearance offers a brutal look at the danger posed by transnational smuggling organizations that turn vulnerable migrants into commodities while pursuing routes toward the United States."It’s all about money," he said."Anybody who’s involved with a cartel or transnational smuggling in this regard, it is about money.
It’s about preying on people’s misfortune."MEXICAN NATIONAL SENTENCED IN BORDER CHILD SMUGGLING CASE INVOLVING THC-LACED CANDYA coasta...