Colombian woman sentenced in Arizona human smuggling case

PHOENIX — A Colombian woman was sentenced to 30 months in prison last week in an Arizona human smuggling case, authorities announced on Monday.

Greiby Barcelo-Velasquez, 39, allegedly ran a travel agency which smuggled more than 100 individuals into the United States through Arizona, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.

Baul Travel SAS in Colombia was owned and operated by Barcelo-Velasquez since approximately June 2023. Later that year, U.S. Border Patrol Sector Intelligence and Homeland Security Investigations began investigating Barcelo-Velasquez after she was named as a smuggling coordinator by multiple Colombians who were arrested, authorities said.

Barcelo-Velasquez was then indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2024.

She faces charges of conspiracy to encourage and induce an alien to unlawfully enter the United States.

How did the Colombian woman’s scheme work?

According to authorities, Barcelo-Velasquez would first meet with individuals in Colombia and demand a fee. She would tell the Colombian nationals they’d travel to Mexico and pretend they were taking a vacation, prosecutors said.

Barcelo-Velasquez also told the Colombian individuals they would be required to pay an additional amount in U.S. currency to her assistants at airports in Cancun or Mexico City as a bribe.

Once the people she was smuggling reached Hermosillo, Mexico, they would be taken to stash houses near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, authorities said. The houses also held other individuals from across the world waiting to illegally cross into the United States.

Barcelo-Velasquez’s armed associates would subsequently bring the Colombian nationals to the border, where they illegally crossed into the U.S., prosecutors said.

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