US Breaks Up Human Smuggling Ring
By Linda Deutsch, AP Special Correspondent
Originally published by The Associated Press, May 4, 2001
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ukrainians trying to enter the United States paid thousands to a smuggling ring that forced many into prostitution once they entered the country, federal agents said.
Eleven Ukrainians involved in the scheme, including the two alleged ringleaders, Serge Mezheritsky, 35, and Tetyana Komisaruk, 49, of Los Angeles were arrested, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Saunders said Thursday.
Eight others remained fugitives, two in California and six in Ukraine or elsewhere.
Mezheritsky, a Ukrainian emigre who once ran unsuccessfully for the City Council of West Hollywood, had grandiose plans for a prostitution ring, an FBI affidavit alleges.
He anticipated the women would generate $10,000 a day in income for him, and expected to supplement that by blackmailing their clients with secret videotapes of sexual encounters, the affidavit said.
But when one of his alleged Ukrainian madams was found murdered in her San Fernando Valley apartment, the affidavit said Mezheritsky was overheard on an FBI wiretap telling an associate it "just totally killed my business."
Mezheritsky and Komisaruk are accused of smuggling between 200 and 2,000 people, charging them $7,000 per person for the trip from Ukraine through Mexico to San Diego and then to other cities. Some were sent to Cleveland, Detroit and New York, Saunders said.
"Some of the aliens were young women who upon arrival were sold into prostitution," he said. "But there were also families, men and children."
The ring was uncovered by chance after a Ukrainian family accidentally dropped a video camera on a trail used by smugglers entering the United States from Mexico. The videotape showed the family, speaking in Ukrainian, documenting their trip for a family history.
"One of our uniformed agents discovered the video camera laying on the ground," said Fernando Grijalva, supervising agent of the Border Patrol in San Diego.
Within a short time, Grijalva said, a Mexican-American guide was arrested smuggling five Ukrainians and a special investigation was launched. The probe began in 1999 and involved a sting operation.
The 11 under arrest were charged with conspiracy to smuggle, transport and harbor illegal immigrants. Defendants could face as much as three years in prison per smuggled immigrant, Saunders said.
Komisaruk's husband, two daughters and a son-in-law were charged with transporting the Ukrainians and laundering money through their bank accounts.
Patrick Patterson, agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, said at least 200 victims had been taken into custody by the Border Patrol and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Some will be held as witnesses; others will face deportation hearings.
Patterson said the immigrants came across the border from Mexico by foot, car or boat. Many were held at a Los Angeles motel and were given fake travel documents.
Often they were told the fee had been increased and they would have to pay thousands more. Some were forced into prostitution to pay off the debt.
