A Brazilian nationwide dwelling illegally in Worcester is ready to look in federal court docket on legal prices that he conspired to smuggle lots of of aliens from his native nation to Boston and different U.S. cities.
Flavio Alexandre Alves, 41, is scheduled to look in Worcester federal court docket Friday morning after authorities arrested him on Wednesday as a part of a regulation enforcement operation “targeting a transnational criminal organization” accused of the “illicit smuggling” of lots of of Brazilians to the U.S.
He made an preliminary look Wednesday and is being detained.
Alves had been deported to Brazil in February 2005 after being beforehand convicted of human smuggling offenses in California, however he allegedly reentered the U.S. someday after and has been dwelling right here illegally, in line with charging paperwork.
Investigators recognized Alves as an alleged “domestic-based smuggler” for a human smuggling group working within the U.S., Brazil and Mexico that’s stated to smuggle Brazilian nationals throughout the southern border for “financial gain and laundering the proceeds.”
An investigation into the group started in April 2022, months after Alves joined it in the midst of 2021 and began to coordinate with “co-conspirators in Brazil and Mexico to facilitate the transportation of aliens from Brazil into the United States,” charging paperwork point out.
Homeland Safety Investigations, inside the Division of Homeland Safety, additionally detained 4 different people throughout the nation on Wednesday for his or her alleged roles with the smuggling group on administrative immigration violations, in line with Massachusetts U.S. Legal professional Leah Foley.
Alves allegedly bought greater than 100 particular person airline tickets for Brazilian aliens, together with these in households and different teams, to fly out of Tucson or Phoenix after Customs and Border Safety encountered and launched them from detention, a launch states.
The aliens whom Alves helped fly out of Arizona have been directed to vacation spot cities together with Boston and others in Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Foley’s workplace stated.
The workplace added that Alves allegedly “sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in money transfers to facilitate the travel of aliens who were later encountered by immigration authorities illegally crossing into the United States, and paid smugglers in Mexico.”
To cover the “nature and frequency” of the transfers, Alves despatched cash out at “various locations” throughout the Bay State, together with a Walmart in Worcester, Leominster, and Oxford, in line with images included in an affidavit and the charging doc.
Alves additionally offered “different variations of his name and home address; and having other close associates conduct the transactions on his behalf,” Foley’s workplace stated.
