Nicaragua 'Donkey Flight': 14 Agents Charged For Human Trafficking

Weeks after the Nicaragua-bound 'donkey flight' carrying 303 Indians was sent back to India over human trafficking suspicions, the Gujarat police booked 14 agents involved in illegally migrating Indians to the US through the Nicaraguan border. A majority of these agents were from Gujarat, while some others were from Delhi, Mumbai, and Dubai. Police officials told the Press Trust of India that 66 passengers were from Gujarat and the rest were from Punjab. The 14 booked agents were charged under the following sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)-- human trafficking (section 370), for destroying evidence (section 201) and criminal conspiracy (section 120-B). However, so far no arrest has been made.

The agents were identified as Chandresh Patel, Kiran Patel, Bhargav Darji, Sandip Patel, Piyush Barot, Arpitsinh Zala, Biren Patel, Jayesh Patel, Sam Paaji, Jogendra alias Jaggi, Joginder Manasram, Raja Bhai, Raju Panchal, and Salim. Meanwhile, the mastermind behind this human trafficking case is the Hyderabad-based Shashi Kiran Reddy, who was facilitating illicit movement from Dubai to Nicaragua.

What Is The Nicaragua 'Donkey Flight' Saga?

A plane destined for Nicaragua carrying 303 Indians suspected of human trafficking was grounded in France's Vatry airport on December 21. The Airbus A340, belonging to Romanian charter company Legend Airlines, flew in from the United Arab Emirates and landed at Vatry airport in France for refuelling. The French police were tipped off about suspicious activity on the plane, and two men were detained and taken for interrogation by a unit specialising in organised crimes.

Indian authorities flew there for an investigation, and the passengers were found guilty of attempting to illegally migrate to the United States and Canada through Nicaragua. The Indians on board the Legend Airlines plane were given consular access as a team from the Indian Embassy reached out to them. 

On December 26, after receiving the all-clear, 276 passengers were flown back, with 25 seeking asylum in France, including 11 minors. Reports suggest these passengers, hailing from impoverished villages in Punjab and Gujarat, were en route to Nicaragua, aiming to enter the US or Canada illegally.

Additional Director General of Police, CID (Crime and Railways), SP Rajkumar told PTI that the probe revealed that the agents had promised to help the passengers illegally enter the US for ₹ 60 lakh to ₹ 80 lakh. He added, "The agents instructed the passengers from Punjab to identify themselves as Khalistani and seek asylum in the US if the police catch them at the border. The story will be different for other passengers. In the US, the government allows asylum seekers to work on humanitarian grounds."

Why Minors Were On The Flight

Early this month, several alleged rumours stated that there was a 2-year-old Gujarat boy on the plane who had not returned home. However, Gujarat Director General of Police Vikas Sahay refuted these claims.

Sahay told the media, "The news report (claiming the child is untraceable) is incorrect. Our officers checked the records of passengers and found out the boy had already returned home with his parents." He also gave leads on another infant tagged along on the journey. 

As per the police, all the minors on the plane were accompanied by their guardians, and reports of missing toddlers were fake. A senior official of the Centre's crime department confirmed to the Times Of India that they have records of their parents on board. The flight was carrying about 96 passengers from Gujarat, according to reports.

The official added that human smugglers advise illegal immigrants to tag young children along with them for easier asylum in the US. He added, "Their (the minor passengers') parents said they took the risk of taking the toddlers along because they wanted a better life for them in the US... Despite the perilous journey, most parents who take the illegal donkey route into the US through Mexico feel their children will be safest with them."

According to undisclosed sources in the Times Of India, agents from Gujarat’s Mehsana and Gandhinagar also often group unrelated individuals to pose as families so that they could enter the US more easily and their American dream could be achieved faster.

Shashi Kiran Reddy: A Likely Mastermind

At the heart of this incident is Shashi Kiran Reddy, a man with a notorious track record of human smuggling. Indian security agencies, in collaboration with the Times of India, revealed that Reddy, implicated in a similar case last year, might be the mastermind behind this Nicaragua-bound flight. The echoes of his involvement resurfaced, connecting him to a tragic incident in January 2022 involving a family from Gujarat found frozen to death in Canada while attempting illegal entry into the United States.

Reddy, allegedly orchestrating a human smuggling network for 15 years, stands accused of sending around 800 illegal Indian immigrants to Nicaragua in the last two months alone. His modus operandi involved posing them as tourists, utilizing chartered flights from Dubai to Nicaragua, a route emerging as popular for immigrants attempting to cross into the US illegally. The recent incident involved a larger aircraft with 303 passengers, strategically assuming it would be permitted to halt and refuel at Vatry airport.

Delving into Reddy's past, a connection emerges with the Dingucha case of 2022, where he was released by Gujarat police due to a lack of evidence. Collaborating with Jagdish Patel's brother, Mahendra Dingucha, Reddy played a pivotal role in sending thousands from Gujarat to the US illegally. The intricate network involved document preparation, coordination with offshore human smugglers, and arrests of alleged "illegal immigration" agents.

Nicaragua has emerged as a favoured destination for those seeking asylum in the US. Recent data from the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) indicates a surge in illegal attempts, with 96,917 Indians attempting to enter the US in the financial year 2023. The rise is staggering, constituting a 51.61% increase compared to the previous year. Notably, flights to Nicaragua or third countries with lenient travel document requirements are colloquially referred to as 'donkey flights.'