The Brazilian Federal police have recently arrested Saifullah Al-Mamun. Originally from Bangladesh, he is one of the biggest human traffickers in the world. Brazilian police forces, cooperating with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were able to apprehend some of the members of a team who were working to smuggle people across the United States border. According to the article, many arrests were made in the populous city of Sao Paulo. Al-Mamun was also residing in Sao Paulo at the time of his arrest. The trafficking group was reliant on at least 42 bank accounts to finance their work, most of which have been frozen by police at this point. Saifulla Al-Mamun has been indicted on United States charges, which according to the United States Department of Justice, include housing individuals from Southeast Asia in his city of choice; Sao Paulo. He also was involved in arranging their travel through smuggling through various countries including Honduras, Panama, Guatemala, and many more. It is said that many who are under the direction of Al-Mamun experience violence during their wait in Sao Paulo. While I believe that it is very true that for every “bad guy” caught, there are one hundred more out there, I think that catching Saifullah Al-Mamun is a leap and a bound in the right direction to ending human trafficking. Human trafficking is a horrific process that steals the lives of far too many people, so to have caught someone dubbed as “the world’s most prolific human trafficker,” is huge. With all that both the American and Brazilian police have found so far, I remain hopeful that the police forces will be able to dive deeper into this particular team of human trafficking. Taking down such a powerful member in the world of human trafficking could have gret effects on those who have significantly less power. It may scare smaller circles away from the terrifying act. As stated before, police forces all over the world have a long way to go in terms of shutting down human trafficking, but I firmly believe that the apprehension of Saifullah Al-Mamun is a terrific accomplishment for all countries involved, and will hopefully get the ball rolling on ending more circles of human trafficking globally.
