A 49-year-old Indian-origin man has admitted to helping smuggle over 800 Indians illegally into the US using Uber. The man, who smuggled the people via the Canada-US border, has been sentenced to over three years in prison.
Rajinder Pal Singh, aka Jaspal Gill, pleaded guilty in February, admitting he was a key member of a smuggling ring and took over $500,000 to bring hundreds of Indians across the border. Records from the case show that Singh and his co conspirators used Uber to transport people, who had crossed the border illegally, to the Seattle area, as early as July 2018.
Uber trips explained
As per a release by the US Department of Justice, the Uber trips would begin near the border in the early hours of the morning and would be split between different rides. To explain the scheme better the agency cited an example saying an Uber trip would be from the border of Sea-Tac airport, and minutes later the second Uber trip would be from a nearby airport hotel to an address in Washington, owned by Singh’s spouse.
From mid-2018 to May 2022, Singh arranged for over 600 trips including the transportation of smuggled Indians. It also said that between July 2018 and April 2022, 17 Uber accounts linked to this smuggling scheme had rang up over $80,000 in charges.
Cash, counterfeit identity documents seized
Law enforcement officials searched two of Singh’s California homes. During the search of one of Singh’s homes they found $45,000 in cash, counterfeit identity documents, among other things. Singh has agreed to forfeit cash and other personal property seized during the searches, as well as a money judgement of $500,000, representing his profits from the scheme.
He is not legally present in the US and will likely be deported following his prison term, the US DOJ said.