The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) recently sanctioned the Bhardwaj Human Smuggling Organization (Bhardwaj HSO), a Mexican-based transnational criminal organization.
OFAC also sanctioned Bhardwaj HSO’s Vikrant Bhardwaj, three others, and 16 companies that facilitated and profited from the HSO’s criminal activities.
The Bhardwaj HSO has been involved in human smuggling, drug trafficking, bribery, and money laundering. It has used multiple modes of transport to smuggle thousands of illegal aliens from Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia into the United States. The organization earns thousands of dollars per smuggled person.
Once in Cancun, Bhardwaj HSO houses the undocumented migrants in hostels and hotels before coordinating with associates to transport the migrants into the United States using the Tapachula-Cancun-Mexicali corridor.
“Today’s action, in collaboration with our law enforcement partners, disrupts this network’s ability to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States,” John Hurley, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said. “The Trump Administration will continue to target and dismantle terrorist transnational criminal organizations to protect the American people.”
All property and interests in property of the blocked persons that are in the United States, or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.