By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 21, 1998; Page A02

In the largest such case in U.S. history, federal agents have dismantled a global immigrant smuggling operation that brought as many as 12,000 people, most of them Indians, into the United States over a three-year period at the behest of employers who placed orders with the ring for cheap, compliant workers, U.S. officials announced yesterday.

Most of the illegal immigrants were smuggled in through Moscow and Cuba by a ring that operated on four continents and amassed more than $200 million in smuggling fees.

Although the Immigration and Naturalization Service described the ring as the largest, most complex and sophisticated that investigators have ever encountered, officials said its vast operations accounted for only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants smuggled into the United States each year. An estimated 275,000 illegal aliens settle here annually, and smuggling organizations play an increasingly important role in sneaking them into the country.

Since Saturday, INS agents have arrested 21 suspects in five states, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, culminating a year-long investigation in which the agency for the first time used new federal wiretapping authority granted under the 1996 immigration law. Among those picked up were two of the operation's three alleged ringleaders -- all Indians who led high-rolling lifestyles with residences in London, the Bahamas or Quito, Ecuador. The third suspected ringleader is believed to be in India, officials said.

The three are among 31 defendants who were charged with various counts of alien-smuggling, conspiracy and money-laundering in three indictments that were unsealed yesterday in Dallas, where the case will be prosecuted. Ten suspects are still at large.

The ring, consisting of three overlapping organizations, smuggled mostly Indians, but also collected people from such countries as Pakistan, Syria and Afghanistan.

INS agents in Dallas initiated the investigation after finding a group of Indians who were being transported to job sites in other parts of the country.

In announcing the indictment, Attorney General Janet Reno said the beneficiaries were "employers who wanted cheap labor and fearful workers who could be easily manipulated."

INS officials said the case marked the first time that a major alien-smuggling operation has been completely taken down -- from the kingpins who run the operations from overseas havens to the smugglers who move the immigrants into the United States to the money-launderers who transfer the proceeds.

"Our goal was to dismantle these flesh cartels from top to bottom . . . and attack them as vigorously as we attack drug cartels," said Paul E. Coggins, the U.S. attorney in Dallas who is prosecuting the case. He said the illegal immigrants were smuggled to more than 1,000 job sites in at least 38 states. He declined to elaborate on what specific businesses received them, saying that a second phase of the investigation would target employers, who could face "criminal, civil and administrative penalties if they knowingly hired illegal aliens." He said no employers have yet been charged.

Officials familiar with the case said the employers who ordered workers from the ring are located mainly on the East Coast, although none has yet been found in the Washington area. The jobs were principally in the "service industry," such as fast-food outlets, officials said.

Among the employers are Indian franchise-holders of Dunkin' Donuts shops who allegedly brought in the illegal aliens without the knowledge of the chain's corporate owners, an informed source said. Several of the defendants named in the indictments are surnamed "Patel," signifying that they belong to a large collection of Indian families whose members own hundreds of Dunkin' Donuts shops across the United States.

Patel is a common name in the western Indian state of Gujarat, the home state of most of the Indians who were smuggled in by the ring, officials said.

The ring charged the illegal immigrants $20,000 to $28,000 each to be smuggled into the United States through circuitous routes that often took months to complete. Some came through Cuba and were smuggled on boats to the Bahamas, while others were flown to Ecuador. They were subsequently spirited into the United States by land, sea and air. Many were flown into U.S. airports with false passports in Latino names. Some were brought across the U.S.-Mexican border with no documents at all.

INS Commissioner Doris M. Meissner said the agency has no information on any complicity in the smuggling operation by the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The United States is seeking the cooperation of Cuban authorities in locating 37 Indians who were stranded in Cuba when the ring was busted, the INS said.

According to Coggins, many of the illegal immigrants were stashed in safe houses in New Jersey and Miami and held there until the smuggling fees were paid. If the families could not afford the fee, the employers who sought the workers would put up the money and garnishee the employees' wages until the debts were paid off, he said.

So far, at least 50 illegal immigrants smuggled by the network have been detained as material witnesses. There have been no indications yet of any severe mistreatment, although officials said it was likely that they were required to work long hours and were underpaid in their jobs.

Among those identified as ringleaders by the INS is Nitin Shettie, a 30-year-old Indian who carried a British passport and used the alias Nick Diaz. He was arrested Saturday in the Bahamas and flown to the United States.

Another alleged ringleader is Navtej Pall Singh Sandhu, 40, a resident of London who was arrested Wednesday while passing through Puerto Rico.

Among those still at large is Niranjan Maan Singh, 58, alias Edgar Salinas Guerrero, who maintained homes in Ecuador and India, investigators said.