The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided 13 locations in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi as part of a money-laundering probe in connection with the illegal immigration racket in which 330 Indians were deported from the US in military cargo planes early this year.
“The racket involved illegally transporting Indians to the US through the dunki route. A probe revealed that the deported Indians sent to the US were facilitated by a complex web of persons involved in the chain, including travel agents, middlemen, overseas associates, hawala operators and other logistics arrangement providers,” said an ED official.
In February, a US military aircraft carrying 330 Indians, mostly from Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat, were deported by the Donald Trump government as part of a crackdown against illegal immigrants. Videos shared by the US border patrol showed the deportees in handcuffs and their legs in chains.
The ED’s money-laundering case stems from 19 FIRs registered by the Punjab and Haryana police against travel agents and middlemen who allegedly cheated Indians willing to enter the US illegally.
These deportees had attempted to cross the US-Mexico border illegally between January 23 and 28, only to be apprehended by US border security patrols and sent to detention centres.
Sources said that based on evidence gathered during searches in February and July, the names of “second and third layer” persons involved in human trafficking came to light.
“The names of several travel firms surfaced in the investigation, following which raids were conducted on Thursday at their offices in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi,” an ED official said.
Earlier, the agency had recorded the statements of the deportees, which led it to the suspects who were being raided.
The deportees told investigators that each of them paid between ₹45 lakh and ₹55 lakh to travel agents whom they had never met in person but were connected to through local contacts. They furnished all documents to the sleuths, including bank account details of the travel agents to whom payments were made.
Recently, the ED provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth ₹5.41 crore, equivalent to the proceeds of crime generated by agents — Shubham Sharma, Jagjit Singh and Surmukh Singh — who were involved in the trafficking racket.
The properties include agricultural land, residential premises, business premises and bank accounts in the names of such agents and their family members.
In July, the offices and houses of suspects and agents in 11 cities, including Amritsar, Sangrur, Patiala and Moga in Punjab and Ambala, Kurukshetra and Karnal in Haryana, were raided, during which bogus immigration and visa stamps were seized.
In a separate case, the
ED is probing the alleged involvement of some Canadian colleges and several Indian
entities, mostly based in Gujarat, in a money-laundering case involving the
trafficking of Indians into the US from the Canada border, sources said.