Child smuggling ring broken, INS says

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The largest child-smuggling ring ever seen by immigration officials managed to funnel several hundred children, ranging from infants to teens, into the United States from Central America before the operation was smashed, officials said Monday.

The smugglers received an average of $5,000 per child to move the children from El Salvador and Honduras through Guatemala and Mexico, and into Southern California, officials said. Once they reached the Los Angeles area, the children were distributed to waiting families -- often their parents, who had previously entered the U.S. illegally.

Officials described the smugglers as clever and cruel.

"These people specialized in smuggling children. The children's ages ranged from just a few months old up to 17 years old," said Johnny Williams, the Immigration and Naturalization Service's associate commissioner for field operations. "Mere teenagers were assigned to care for the little ones."

Williams said the fate of the children and their families in the United States will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Twelve alleged smugglers are now in the hands of authorities in El Salvador and the United States -- seven in El Salvador and five in the United States.

The woman officials accuse of being the ringleader, Berta Campos of San Salvador, is being held in Los Angeles and is expected to be moved to Washington in the next few days to stand trial. Campos will join Guillermo Antonio Paniagua, whom U.S. marshals have already moved from Los Angeles to Washington for prosecution.

The three other people in U.S. custody were flown late Friday from Guatemala to Houston, where they are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for hearing on being moved to Washington.

Federal prosecutors in the nation's capital say the five accused smugglers were indicted by grand juries in Washington earlier this summer and if convicted, could face sentences up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.

Williams declined to disclose details of the smuggling operation because the investigation is continuing.

"These people really knew what they were doing," said another official, who asked not to be named. "Their moves were very carefully planned. They didn't just try to slip across the border at random."

The officials said the children were moved in small buses to Tijuana, then often driven across the U.S. border in small numbers. Many but not all went through ports of entry and were undetected.

"There's a lot of money in this for smugglers, and there are no doubt others out there," the official said. "There can be more money in smuggling human cargo than drugs, and the sentences are lighter."