00:00Thank you, U.S. Attorney Kehoe, and thanks for everything that you're doing, and to all our incredible U.S. attorneys around the country.
00:09My first day as Attorney General, under President Trump's leadership, we announced that the Department of Justice would pursue the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
00:22Thanks to President Trump, many of these groups, many of these gangs, are now classified as foreign terrorist organizations because they pose an extreme threat to not only our country, but to our world.
00:38They traffic drugs, weapons, and people.
00:41Every American community destroyed drives up their profit margins.
00:48No longer.
00:51We are investigating and prosecuting their crimes more aggressively than ever, and Joint Task Force Alpha is the tip of the spear.
01:00We have been working on that with Secretary Kristi Noem, Homeland Security, and I cannot say enough good things about Secretary Noem.
01:07I was with her in Louisiana yesterday, and she is fighting to keep our country safe every single day.
01:14Just this week, Joint Task Force Alpha took four major enforcement actions.
01:22Right here in Tampa, we unsealed the indictment, charging 12 defendants operating a massive, right here in Tampa, a massive illegal smuggling ring.
01:33The defendants engaged in a conspiracy to bring illegal aliens from Cuba to the U.S. for profit.
01:39They coached their clients, including children, who came to airports alone, came to our country alone, were put on planes for connecting flights, lied to Border Patrol agents due to coaching and law enforcement.
01:57They charged up to $40,000 per victim.
02:02They used Zelle to transfer over $7 million over the course of this scheme, and I believe had profits, cash, of over $18 million.
02:16And it's just not the southern border.
02:19In Vermont, and U.S. Attorney Drescher is here with us, we indicted Norma Lorenzo, a woman who allegedly worked with Canadian co-conspirators from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and El Salvador.
02:34Children were transferred to private residences, other airports.
02:38And in 2023, according to CBP, parts of Vermont and New York started seeing unprecedented traffic from illegal aliens.
02:50Law enforcement officers operating in these areas encountered aliens from 97 different countries, including China, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Yemen.
03:05In the southern district this week of Texas, and Nick Ganges here, we secured the extradition of three men from Guatemala who have been charged in connection with a mass casualty alien smuggling event.
03:22This tragic event occurred in 2021 in Chiapas, Mexico, a semi-truck containing at least 160 illegal aliens crashed, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 people.
03:42The cost of human smuggling is huge.
03:47So many families are dying.
03:49So many people are dying.
03:50These smugglers used a variety of vehicles, including micro buses, tractor trailers, and cattle trucks, to smuggle multiple Guatemalan aliens, including many unaccompanied minors, into this country.
04:08In the western district of Texas, where Justin Simmons is our U.S. attorney, we just this week charged four defendants with their role in a deplorable scheme,
04:19smuggling unaccompanied children, smuggling unaccompanied children, smuggling unaccompanied children into the United States from Mexico.
04:23These monsters behind the operation drugged unaccompanied children coming into our country, giving them THC so they would be asleep when passing through customs.
04:38One of the children was overdosed so badly that the child was overdosed so badly that the child had to go to the hospital.
04:45Since President Trump took office, Joint Task Force Alpha has charged 56 defendants, including convicting a monster who attempted to bring in Indian nationals into our country in sub-zero weather through Canada, in the middle of a blizzard.
05:05This was a family of four. This family was eventually found dead in a blizzard, with the father holding the three-year-old little boy, wrapped in a blanket, with his glove covering his child's face, trying to save his life.
05:24In June, we arrested a Canadian-American citizen in New York for charging $1,000 for every illegal alien he smuggled over the St. Lawrence River into our country.
05:35One of the boats capsized, killing a family, including two children under the age of three.
05:41A few weeks ago, we convicted a coyote in Texas. A coyote, of course, is someone who transports illegal aliens across state lines for money.
05:51In Texas, we charged him for charging $30,000 for every 10 illegal aliens that he could get to the Rio Grande.
06:01He got an additional $30,000 for every 10 illegal aliens that made it across the Rio Grande alive.
06:10That is why we are now expanding Joint Task Force Alpha.
06:16It has five steps.
06:18We will now cover, the task force will now cover our northern border in Canada, of course, and all of our maritime borders.
06:26Our incredible partner, again, at DHS, Kristi Noem, and I are expanding this to include our DEA, ATF, and FBI agents to this task force to give us even more manpower.
06:41We will receive more resources to prosecute these cases and key figures in cartel, human trafficking, and transnational criminals.
06:52We will strengthen our collaboration with foreign law enforcement throughout this world to protect not only their citizens, but ours,
07:04and return these criminals to American soil for prosecution.
07:10Under President Trump, we have coordinated more closely with our U.S. attorney's offices
07:16to protect unaccompanied children being smuggled into our country from exploitation.
07:24One of the task force's greatest accomplishments has been demonstrating how dangerous human smuggling and trafficking are for those being transported.
07:35For those who are considering paying to be smuggled into the U.S., it is not safe for you or for your families.
07:43These coyotes are coordinating with terrorist organizations, collecting money from them to bring families and unaccompanied children into our country.
07:55These operations are getting people killed.
07:58Let me be clear.
07:59If you smuggle human beings, you will be found, you will be prosecuted, and you will be brought to justice.
08:05It doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter what our borders are, the limit of where our country ends and another begins,
08:15but it does not limit our law enforcement capabilities to bring you to the United States and prosecute you and lock you up for as long as we can.
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