On Tuesday, June 27, a 49-year-old man California resident identified as Rajinder Pal Singh, aka Jaspal Gill, has been imprisoned for smuggling more than 800 Indian citizens into the USA using the ride-sharing app Uber. He was sentenced to over three years in jail by the US District Court in Seattle.
The Department of Justice said in a press release that the accused had pleaded guilty in February, admitting that he was involved in a smuggling operation that brought hundreds of Indian citizens into Canada from across the border, earning more than USD 500,000.
“Over a four-year period, Mr Singh arranged for more than 800 people to be smuggled into the U.S. across the northern border and into Washington State,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman.
“This conduct was not just a security risk for our country, it also subjected those smuggled to security and safety risks during the often weeks-long smuggling route from India to the United States. Mr Singh’s participation in this conspiracy preyed upon the Indian Nationals’ hopes for a better life in the United States while saddling those smuggled with a crushing debt of as much as $70,000,” the court added.
According to the news release, which cited documents submitted in the case, starting in July 2018, Singh and his accomplices used Uber to transport individuals who had illegally crossed the border from Canada to the Seattle region.
Singh organised more than 600 journeys involving the transportation of Indian people who were being trafficked into the US illegally between mid-2018 and May 2022.
According to investigation estimates, the 17 Uber accounts connected to the smuggling operation accrued more than USD 80,000 in charges between July 2018 and April 2022.
In trips that typically started near the border in the early hours and were split across different riders, Singh’s accomplices would use the one-way vehicle rentals to transport individuals smuggled to their final destinations outside Washington state, according to the press release.
The smuggling ring’s members also employed sophisticated techniques to launder the illegal earnings. Singh admitted that the purpose of the complex money movement was to obscure the illegal nature of the funds.
According to the news release, investigators also seized around $45,000 in cash and fake identification documents from one of Singh’s California homes.
Singh, who is not authorised to be in the US, will probably be deported after serving his sentence.
