Last week, Greiby Melissa Barcelo-Velasquez, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for her role in smuggling fellow Colombians into the United States, as confirmed by U.S. Attorney's Office. The 39-year-old Colombian national was convicted of conspiracy to encourage and induce an alien to unlawfully enter the United States, after a thorough investigation linked over 100 individuals to Barcelo-Velasquez's illicit operation, which used her travel agency, Baul Travel SAS, as a front.
Having kicked off in June 2023, the smuggling scheme involved duping clients into believing they were embarking on trips to Mexico for vacation, only to be shuffled into a network that led to stash houses near the U.S.-Mexico border. The United States Border Patrol Sector Intelligence and Homeland Security Investigations got wind of the operation after several of the smuggled Colombian nationals identified Barcelo-Velasquez as their smuggling coordinator upon being arrested, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In Mexico, Colombian nationals faced demands for additional fees from Barcelo-Velasquez's affiliates to supposedly grease the palms of officials to ease their passage. Afterward, they were taken to stash houses used to corral people from various corners of the globe, all angling for an illegal entry into the United States. Eventually, they were transported, frequently under the watch of armed escorts, to their illegal crossing points into Arizona, said court documents, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), an initiative elevated and enlarged for combatting cartels and transnational criminal organizations involved in human smuggling and trafficking, played a critical role in bringing Barcelo-Velasquez's operations to a halt. Since its inception, the task force, which is a collaborative effort involving multiple U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and other federal agencies, has led to the arrests of over 355 individuals tied to alien smuggling, more than 320 U.S. convictions, and the imposition of over 265 significant jail sentences.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stuart Zander and Adriana Genco, District of Arizona, Phoenix, spearheaded the prosecution of the case, which was brought to light through the diligent investigative efforts of Customs and Border Protection’s United States Border Patrol Sector Intelligence Unit alongside Homeland Security Investigations. Barcelo-Velasquez now faces the repercussions of her illicit enterprise, as presided over by United States District Judge John J. Tuchi, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
