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A Canadian truck driver was charged in federal court on Friday with smuggling 10 Vietnamese citizens into the United States in the commercial trailer of his semi-trailer.
Husain Al Kawwaz, a Canadian citizen, told an investigator in an interview that he would receive $5,000 upon his return to Canada after successfully smuggling the people into the United States, according to a federal law enforcement agent’s affidavit filed with a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Detroit. The alleged incident occurred in Detroit on Wednesday.
The complaint listed the crime committed against Al Kawwaz as human smuggling for commercial and personal financial gain.
Al Kawwaz was temporarily taken into custody during his initial appearance in federal court on Friday. A detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, according to court records.
Attorney Elizabeth Young, who represented Al Kawwaz at his initial appearance, said Friday that he has no criminal history. She said he has a family that he loves and that he has a “very loving, supportive family.” She said she thought release pending trial would be appropriate.
The affidavit states that 34-year-old Al Kawwaz, a native of Iraq, applied for entry into the United States at the Fort Street Cargo Facility in Detroit at around 11:32 p.m. on Wednesday.
He drove to a Customs and Border Protection agent’s inspection booth and was apparently the only occupant of the semi-trailer, according to the affidavit.
The officer referred him and his truck for the second inspection, where an X-ray of the truck and an agricultural examination of his goods, which were fresh produce from Canada, were conducted. The affidavit states that Al Kawwaz drove from the first inspection booth to the parking area inside the port of entry designated for trucks awaiting a second inspection.
On Thursday, at around 12:30 a.m., officers from the perimeter protection team found ten people, who later identified themselves as Vietnamese citizens, hiding in the second inspection parking lot, they said.
Because of the language barrier, officials were initially unable to obtain information about how they arrived. Their passports showed that they did not have U.S. visas or other documents that would have allowed them to enter the United States, court records show.
At about 1:25 a.m. Thursday, according to the affidavit, Al Kawwaz completed his second inspections and was released into the United States in his truck.
At about 2 a.m. Thursday, a Customs and Border Protection agent was reviewing surveillance camera footage to determine where the individuals were coming from when he saw a large group walking away from Al Kawwaz’s truck after he parked in the second inspection spot and exited his vehicle, the affidavit said.
It states that approximately 25 minutes later, officers contacted Al Kawwaz’s dispatcher and asked him to return to the port of entry, which he did. He was given a verbal and written explanation of his Miranda rights, which he acknowledged, according to the affidavit, and he agreed to answer questions without an attorney present. That interview was videotaped and audio recorded, according to the investigator.
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During the interview, Al Kawwaz claimed that this was his first human smuggling operation into the United States, after he was offered the opportunity to smuggle people for $5,000 at a rest stop in Windsor “a week or ten days earlier.”
He told the investigator he brought the people from Windsor, hidden in his trailer. He told the investigator he would be paid upon his return to Canada after successfully smuggling them into the United States, the affidavit states.
Al Kawwaz stated that he picked up the people in Windsor immediately before entering the United States and secured them with a seal from the outside after entering his semi-trailer.
After being directed to the second inspection, he stated, according to the affidavit, that he parked his truck at the inspection site, got out, removed the seal from the trailer and “gestured to the ten people to get out of the trailer.”
He said he planned to complete his second inspection and then return to the truck lot to pick up the people. When he did, however, they weren’t there, so he left without them, the affidavit said. Court records did not reveal the status of the Vietnamese.
Contact Christina Hall: [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter.
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