Mexico Arrests Suspected Smuggler Of Iranians And Iraqis To U.S.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 26 (AFP) - Mexico arrested a top smuggler of Asians, including Iranians and Iraqis, into the United States, who heads a criminal group which US authorities believe is the most dangerous operating on the US-Mexican border, the Attorney General's Office said.
Agustin Chan Montoya was arrested Wednesday while "operating illegally out of Mexicali (northeast) ... where he had contacts to fly into that urban area undocumented people from Asia, including Iranians and Iraqis," the office said in a statement.
Montoya's group helped immigrants cross into the United States "on rafts floated down a canal separating the United States and Mexico" in a region of northeastern Mexico known as Rochas.
Chan is on a US Federal Bureau of Investigation list of most wanted criminals, and the "US border patrol believes he heads the most dangerous criminal group operating on the US-Mexican border and Mexico's Baja California," the statement said.
Although the statement did not say whether the undocumented people smuggled across the border were terrorists or belonged to the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, the US panel that investigated the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States determined in a report issued earlier this month that Al-Qaeda has used Mexican people smugglers to sneak its members into the United States.