A Colombian smugglers guilty plea is shedding new light on a deadly route to the United States after a boat carrying 42 people vanished at sea and a top Justice Department official said the danger would not have ended if they reached land.
Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 41, also known as “El Calvo,” pleaded guilty in federal court in El Paso, Texas, after being extradited from Colombia for his role in a smuggling conspiracy that prosecutors said used bribery and maritime routes to move migrants north.
The boat left Colombias San Andrés Island for Nicaragua on Oct. 21, 2023, carrying approximately 40 migrants and two captains. It never arrived, and no one aboard has been seen or heard from since.
“This was a particularly sad and disturbing situation,” Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva, who leads the Justice Departments Criminal Division, told Fox News Digital.
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“These 40 individuals and the two boat captains, once they set out from San Andrés Island to Nicaragua, were never heard from again,” Duva said. “These individuals are, of course, missing and presumed dead, and it appears that there were no survivors.”
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Duva said the disappearance offers a brutal look at the danger posed by transnational smuggling organizations that turn vulnerable migrants into commodities while pursuing routes toward the United States.
“Its all about money,” he said. “Anybody whos involved with a cartel or transnational smuggling in this regard, it is about money. Its about preying on peoples misfortune.”
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According to the Justice Department, Linero Pinto advised migrants on how to reach San Andrés Island, personally received them upon arrival, arranged their accommodations and transported them to boats bound for Nicaragua.
From there, the migrants intended to travel through Central America and Mexico before illegally entering the United States, prosecutors said.
Linero Pinto also bribed members of the Colombian navy to obtain real-time intelligence about the positions of patrol vessels between San Andrés Island and Nicaragua, to evade authorities, according to court documents.
He admitted helping smuggle the migrants aboard the boat that vanished in October 2023.
Duva said the victims had not even completed the opening stretch of the dangerous route when they disappeared.
“Thats the first leg. They didnt even finish the first leg here and get to Nicaragua and then try to come north by land,” he said. “Its a
