AN unusual sting operation set up by U.S. federal authorities led to the arrest of Guyanese Marcia Sunita Pestano, and charges of illegally bringing a boatload of undocumented foreigners from the Bahamas to Miami, according to a Miami Herald article.

Pestano, 44, was granted a $250,000 bond on Friday, as an alternative to detention before trial in the Miami Federal Court. Her arraignment is set for May 7, and her defence attorney, Marshall Dore Louis, has declined to comment on the case.

According to the Miami newspaper, Pestano was arrested earlier last week after Homeland Security investigators coordinated an undercover operation targeting her. She was suspected of directing “alien-smuggling ventures from various third countries through The Bahamas to the United States,” according to a criminal complaint.

Executing such a sting in a human-smuggling investigation is uncommon.
On April 14, Pestano met with an undercover agent in The Bahamas to smuggle seven undocumented migrants from Freeport to Miami, the complaint says. She paid $24,900 in U.S. currency and an additional $6,100 in Bahamas dollars to the agent for the illegal trip.
The following day, Pestano arranged for the seven migrants to travel by boat to Miami — although she was unaware that the vessel was “surreptitiously operated” by Homeland Security investigators, the complaint says.

When the boat arrived in Miami, it was stopped by federal authorities and 12 undocumented migrants were on board — including the seven whose passage was arranged by Pestano. It was unclear from the complaint why there were 12 passengers on board.

At the Coast Guard Station in Miami Beach, U.S. Border Patrol agents interviewed the dozen people from Caribbean and Latin American countries, who were then transported to the Border Patrol Station in Dania Beach.

The article added that between April 16 and April 22, Pestano contacted another undercover agent who was posing as a corrupt government official. “She sought assistance (from the agent) to get the (seven undocumented aliens) out of immigration detention, so that she would not lose the money she was supposed to earn for arranging for them to be smuggled to the United States,” according to the complaint.

Pestano, who went by the name “Julie,” also asked the undercover agent to assist with her own travel to Miami, so she could obtain the people’s release from the vessel.
Last Monday , the agent arranged for Pestano to travel from Nassau to Miami and set up a meeting between her and two Indian nationals at a hotel in Doral, “for what they believed would be an exchange” of money for their release, the complaint says.

Homeland Security investigators then detained Pestano and the other two Indian nationals, who were not identified. After her arrest, investigators found she possessed $13,000 in U.S. money and an additional $26,000 in Bahamas and Guyana currency, the complaint says. The Indian nationals had about $33,950 on them.

Pestano was charged with conspiring to encourage and induce aliens to enter the United States in violation of federal law, the Miami Herald article added.