US offers $1 mln rewards to capture Pakistani human smuggler who operates in Mid East

The US is offering two $1million cash rewards to bring Pakistani national and human smuggler Abid Ali Kahn to justice and to crackdown on his people-smuggling network that operates across the Middle East and Asia, the Department of State announced on Thursday.

Ali Khan allegedly operates a Pakistani-based smuggling network that facilitates the travel of undocumented individuals into the US from the Middle East and southwest Asia in exchange for payment.

In addition to planning and coordinating the international travel from Pakistan through multiple countries, Ali Khan allegedly offered or provided false documents for foreign nationals to use for travel.

The US has announced two rewards for information.

The first reward of up to $1 million is offered for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Ali Khan, while a second $1 million reward is offered for information leading to the financial disruption of Ali Khan’s human-smuggling network.

“Smuggling organizations like Ali Khan’s take advantage of vulnerable populations, pose high risk, and gravely endanger the individuals being smuggled,’ the Department of State said in a statement on its website. “Persons smuggled to the US are often subject to perilous travel through South and Central America, which can involve many days of walking through difficult terrain with little food or water, with many falling victims to robbery and abuse during the journey.”

On April 7, 2021, the US Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia charging Ali Khan with “Conspiracy to Encourage and Induce an Alien to Unlawfully Entering the US, Encouraging and Inducing an Alien to Unlawfully Entering the US, and Bringing an Alien to the US”, authorities said.

On the same date, the Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions against Ali Khan and the Ali Khan Transnational Criminal Organization pursuant to Executive Order 13581 “Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations,” stemming from the same criminal conduct.

These rewards are offered under the Department of State’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP).

More than 75 transnational criminals and major narcotics traffickers have been brought to justice under the TOCRP and the Narcotics Rewards Program (NRP) since 1986, with the Department paying more than $135 million in rewards to date.