Human trafficker pleads guilty
A PAKISTANI national has pleaded guilty to smuggling dozens of people through Panama on their way to the United States.
Sharafat Ali Khan, 32 will be sentenced in July after admitting to smuggling people from Pakistan and Afghanistan into the United States by way of dangerous treks through Brazil and Latin America including the Darien jungle.
Khan a former resident of Brazil, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to smuggle undocumented migrants into the United States for profit.
At least 81 people identified Khan as the person who helped them travel from Brazil to the United States between May 2014 and June 2016, according to court records.
Prosecutors say Khan managed safe houses for the travelers and arranged for people in other countries to escort them on different legs of the route.
He told prosecutors the voyage Included long hikes with little food and water through the snake infested remote tropical forest of the Darien Gap, on the border of Colombia and Panama.
Court records show the travelers paid between $5,000 and $ 12,000 each before their journeys.
