FLORIDA, United States (CMC) — The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) says that cooperative efforts between US and Turks and Caicos Islands law enforcement authorities culminated in Wednesday’s extradition to the US of a Canadian national who has been charged with alien (immigrant) smuggling offences.

The DOJ said Sri Kajamukam Chelliah, also known as “Mohan”, 55, is charged in a criminal complaint, unsealed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, with conspiracy to bring immigrants to the United States and to encourage and induce the immigrants to come to, enter or reside in the United States.

Chelliah is also charged with attempting to bring immigrants to the United States for commercial advantage and private financial gain.

According to the complaint, Chelliah is alleged to have attempted to facilitate the travel of immigrants from Sri Lanka through Haiti, Turks and Caicos Islands, and The Bahamas to the United States from on or about July 1, 2019 to October 10, 2019.

On October 10, 2019, Turks and Caicos Island authorities interdicted a Haitian sloop sailboat carrying Chelliah and 154 migrants, including 28 Sri Lankan nationals.

The DOJ said Chelliah was arrested on local immigration charges and later sentenced.

Following the completion of his prison sentence, the DOJ said Chelliah was placed in immigration detention in Turks and Caicos.

US law enforcement determined Chelliah and others allegedly made arrangements to smuggle numerous Sri Lankan immigrants to Canada through the United States for monetary payments.

“The defendant allegedly facilitated a smuggling operation by attempting to transport aliens through various countries, including the United States, for financial gain,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

“This case demonstrates the department’s commitment to working with our foreign law enforcement partners to prosecute human smugglers who seek to thwart our system of legal immigration, jeopardise our national security, and risk the lives of people who face the dangers of maritime smuggling,” he added.

US Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida said that “human smugglers not only violate our country’s immigration laws and threaten our national security, they also put in jeopardy the very lives of the people they transport.

“Alongside its local, national, and foreign partners, my office is firmly committed to prosecuting members of international criminal organisations and others who try to profit from this callous activity,” she said.

Special agent in charge Anthony Salisbury of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Miami said that “transnational criminal organisations use human smuggling as a means for profit while at the same time threatening the security of the United States.

“HSI will continue to work with our international law enforcement partners to target criminal organisations who conspire to undermine our nation’s laws for their own profit,” he said.

The DOH said Chelliah was arrested on July 28, 2020, by Turks and Caicos authorities, based on a provisional arrest request submitted by the United States.

He consented to extradition and, on August 15, 2020, the governor of Turks and Caicos issued an order allowing the extradition to the United States, the DOJ said.