A Pakistani national has pleaded guilty to operating an international human smuggling network that charged migrants as much as $40,000 each to be illegally transported into the United States, the Justice Department announced.
Abbas Ali Haider, 49, of Sialkot, Pakistan, operated two fake Pakistan-based companies — Diamond TV World Productions and Multimedia Advertising Ltd. — as cover to bring Pakistani nationals illegally into the United States. From approximately September 2019 through September 2023, Haider fraudulently obtained visas for Pakistani nationals to travel to Ecuador, Cuba, and Colombia under the pretense of legitimate business travel, when their real destination was always the southern U.S. border.
Posing as employees traveling to work on films, the Pakistani nationals were admitted to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Haider’s network then guided them to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they illegally crossed into California, Texas, and Arizona.
Haider was extradited to the United States from Mexico in July 2025. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States for private financial gain and bringing in illegal aliens for profit. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 30 and faces a minimum of three years and a maximum of 10 years in prison.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations Calexico, working with HSI offices in Brasilia, Quito, Tijuana, and the Caribbean, as well as the HSI Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Miami, and ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations in Detroit provided substantial assistance.
The case was prosecuted as part of Joint Task Force Alpha, the Justice Department’s lead effort in combating high-impact human smuggling and trafficking committed by cartels and transnational criminal organizations. To date, the task force’s work has resulted in more than 455 domestic and international arrests, more than 400 U.S. convictions, and more than 350 significant jail sentences.
By DNU staff