1 of 2 | Alves (L) seen with a co-conspirator in a still from surveillance footage from a Walmart executing a money transfer to a Brazilian national who is believed to have illegally entered the United States. Photo courtesy of U.S. Justice Department
March 26 (UPI) — An undocumented Brazilian migrant accused of being the U.S.-based facilitator of an international operation was arrested Wednesday as U.S. and Brazilian law enforcement executed an operation to dismantle his criminal group.
The suspect, Flavio Alexandre Alves, 41, who also goes by Ronaldo, was arrested in Worcester, Mass., on charges of conspiracy to bring undocumented migrants to and then transport them within the United States.
The criminal complaint states Alves allegedly worked with others to transport Brazilian migrants from their home country through Mexico and into the United States where he bought them plane tickets to send them to cities throughout the country.
Prosecutors accuse Alves of buying more than 100 individual plane tickets for flights departing from Tucson or Phoenix, Ariz., to Boston, Mass., or the Pennsylvania cities of Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia.
He is also alleged to have transferred funds from the United States to undocumented migrants as well as smugglers located in Mexico and collected fees from them for smuggling them north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Alves was previously convicted of smuggling-related offense in California in 2004 and was deported to Brazil in February 2005.
Authorities said he allegedly re-entered the United States within the interim years. The identities of his alleged co-conspirators are redacted in the court document but are said to be those whom he worked with previously. At least one of the alleged co-conspirators was arrested with Alves in 2004.
Prosecutors said Homeland Security Investigations initiated an investigation into a human smuggling organization sending Brazilian migrants into the United States in February 2022 after Brazilian law enforcement interviewed several nationals who were deported from the United States who indicated they had paid Alves’ alleged co-conspirators to be smuggled.
An alleged co-conspirator named Leno Rawlinson Silva Oliveira is identified in Alves’ criminal complaint as the leader of the Brazilian human smuggling organization. Search warrants executed by Brazilian police recovered a cell phone used by Oliveira to communicate with members of the organization, including Alves.
The court document accuses Alves of being the organization’s U.S.-based smuggler and that he joined the group in mid-2021 at the recommendation of a Mexican-based human smuggler.
“Alves’ role in the conspiracy was to coordinate with Leno and M373 on the movement of Brazilian migrants from Brazil, through Mexico, and then into the United States; purchase airline tickets for migrants to various places within the United States; execute money transfers from the United States to migrants/smugglers located in Mexico to pay for expenses associated with transit into the United States; and collect payments from Brazilian Migrants as the fee for facilitating movement into the United States,” the criminal complaint states. M373 is the redacted name used to identify one of co-conspirators in the document.
Four related suspects, unidentified by U.S. authorities, were also arrested Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia.
In Brazil, federal authorities executed 16 search and seizure warrants and one preventive arrest warrant as part of the international operation. Courts also blocked about $2.4 million in assets and fund belonging to the suspects.
“The suspects lured residents from various cities in Maranhao, organizing their illegal journey through routes in Central America,” the Federal Police of Brazil said in a Wednesday statement.
“The victims paid exorbitant amounts for the trip, often taking on debts with abusive interest rates. The investigation identified hundreds of victims, including children and adolescents, and uncovered the use of shell companies for money laundering.”
The investigation and arrest of Alves was coordinated under the Extraterritorial CRiminal Travel Strike Force and the Joint Task Force Alpha, a Biden administration initiative.
Attorney General Pam Bondi elevated the JTFA to the Office of the Attorney General early last month as the Trump administration seeks to crack down on illegal and legal immigration as well as human smuggling and drug cartels.
Alves appeared before a judge in federal court in Worcester on Wednesday and is to have a detention hearing Friday.
If convicted, he faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment, three years’ supervised release and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy charge.