HOUSTON, Texas — Saiful Islam, 39, a Bangladeshi national who was extradited from Brazil to the United States in April, pleaded guilty on Monday, November 9, to federal charges over his role in a conspiracy that smuggled numerous people through South America, Central America and Mexico and into the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Nov. 9, 2026

According to court documents cited by the Justice Department, Islam participated in a wide-ranging alien smuggling organisation and assisted other smugglers by facilitating the travel of people from and through Brazil, South America, Central America and Mexico so that they could illegally enter the United States. Some were transported along the Colombian coast in dangerous boats run by intoxicated pilots. Some trekked on foot through the Darién Gap, the roadless jungle corridor between Colombia and Panama. Others were given other individuals' documentation to conceal their identities.

At the final leg of the journey, the people being moved were brought to the southern border and instructed to cross into the United States by wading across the Rio Grande River or by jumping a border fence, the department said. Some paid Islam thousands of dollars to be smuggled into the United States.

The plea, and what he faces

Islam pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bring an alien to the United States and two counts of bringing an alien to the United States, all for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain. He also agreed to forfeit money he collected from the people he helped smuggle. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 17, 2027, and faces a mandatory minimum of three years in prison; a federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, the department said.

An investigation spanning four countries

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Phoenix led the investigation, with assistance from HSI offices in Laredo, Brasília and Bogotá, the HSI Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C., U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Counter Network Division, Brazil's Department of Federal Police, the Colombia National Police, the U.S. Marshals Service and INTERPOL. The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in securing Islam's arrest and extradition from Brazil, and the department publicly thanked its Brazilian law-enforcement counterparts for making the extradition possible.

Background: the task force behind the case

The case was supported and prosecuted by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), the Justice Department's lead effort against human smuggling and trafficking by cartels and transnational criminal organisations throughout the Americas, run in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security. The department says JTFA's work to date has produced more than 486 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organisers and significant facilitators of smuggling and trafficking, more than 447 U.S. convictions, and more than 374 significant jail sentences and asset forfeitures.

Why the route in this plea matters

The court documents in Islam's case do not list the nationalities of the people he helped move. The route they describe — Brazil, the Colombian coast, the Darién Gap, Central America, Mexico, then the Rio Grande — is the hemisphere-spanning path that U.S. officials say smuggling networks market to migrants from many regions of the world who cannot enter the United States directly, at prices that in this case reached thousands of dollars per person, and through legs that the department itself describes as dangerous, including boats run by intoxicated pilots and the jungle crossing of the Darién Gap.

What happens next

Islam now awaits sentencing on February 17, 2027, before a federal district court judge in the Southern District of Texas. His guilty plea resolves the three counts he admitted without a trial; the forfeiture of money he collected from smuggled migrants forms part of the plea. The Justice Department has not publicly disclosed the total number of people moved through the network described in the plea or the full amount of money it collected.