Iván Evair Saldaña
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, December 17, 2024, p. 10
A federal judge stopped the extradition from Mexico to the United States of Abdul Karim Conteh, originally from the African country Sierra Leone, and alleged leader of a transnational migrant smuggling organization that operates in countries in America, Africa and Asia.
Karim, as identified by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), is accused of running the Abdul Karim Conteh human trafficking organization (Karim HSO) based in Tijuana, Baja California. . In the United States he is required for providing false documentation to foreigners and violating its immigration laws.
However, the sixteenth district judge in criminal matters, José Elías Pacheco Martínez, granted an outright suspension to Karim, for the sole purpose of preventing him from being handed over to the Americans for the moment. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) may continue with the extradition process.
Mexican accomplice
On July 18 of this year, OFAC sanctioned the Karim HSO organization and identified its leader as the responsible for smuggling thousands of migrants from Africa, China, the Middle East, Russia, Central Asia and other jurisdictions into the United States
. In total, he points out migrants from 12 countries: Afghanistan, China, Iran, Nigeria, Mauritania, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Investigations indicate that Karim is helped by his wife, Mexican citizen Verónica Roblero Pivaral (Veronica)
who performs a variety of critical functions in the criminal organization.
