Man smuggles 800 Indians from Canada to US using Uber, jailed

PTI

New York, June 28

A 49-year-old Indian-origin man was sentenced to over three years in jail for smuggling more than 800 Indian citizens into the US using ride-hailing app Uber.

Rajinder Pal Singh, aka Jaspal Gill, who pleaded guilty in February, admitting that he took in more than $5,00,000 as a key member of a smuggling ring, bringing in hundreds of Indian nationals across the border from Canada, the Department of Justice said in a press release.

Of Indian origin, he made $5,00,000

• Rajinder Pal Singh, aka Jaspal Gill, admitting that he took in more than $5,00,000 as a key member of a smuggling ring
• They brought in hundreds of Indian nationals across the border from Canada, the Department of Justice said

Singh, a resident of California, was sentenced on Tuesday in a US district court to “45 months in prison for conspiracy to transport and harbour certain aliens for profit and conspiracy to commit money laundering,” said Acting US Attorney Tessa M Gorman.

“Over a four-year period, Singh arranged for more than 800 people to be smuggled into the US across the northern border and into Washington state,” said Gorman.

She asserted that Singh’s conduct was not just a security risk for Washington but also subjected those smuggled to security and safety perils during the often weeks-long smuggling route from India to the US.

“Singh’s participation in this conspiracy preyed upon the Indian nationals’ hopes for a better life in the US while saddling those smuggled with a crushing debt of as much as $70,000,” Gorman said. From July 2018, Singh and his co-conspirators used Uber to transport people who had illegally crossed the border from Canada to the Seattle area.

From mid-2018 to May 2022, Singh arranged more than 600 trips involving the transportation of Indian nationals illegally smuggled into the US.