Federal prosecutor warns of perilous migrant crossing after 42 are reported missing at sea

A senior official at the Justice Department has issued a warning about a fatal smuggling route following the disappearance at sea of 42 individuals, suggesting the migrants were probably killed when their vessel sank during the crossing.

Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva, who leads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, told Fox News Digital that the 40 individuals and two boat captains were missing and presumed dead with no survivors. The boat left Colombia’s San Andrés Island for Nicaragua on Oct. 21, 2023, carrying approximately 40 migrants and two captains. It never arrived, and no one aboard has been seen or heard from since.

Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 41, also known as “El Calvo,” pleaded guilty in federal court in El Paso, Texas after being extradited from Colombia. He admitted helping smuggle the migrants aboard the boat that vanished in October 2023.

Linero’s Guilty Plea

The Justice Department says Linero Pinto personally greeted migrants when they arrived at San Andrés Island, helped arrange their accommodations, and took them to boats heading for Nicaragua. He also paid members of the Colombian Navy to get real-time information about the positions of patrol vessels traveling between San Andrés Island and Nicaragua, so that smuggling boats could avoid being caught by authorities.

The U.S. government requested Linero Pinto’s arrest in Colombia in December after he was charged in October 2024. He was then extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and placing lives in jeopardy. The maximum sentence he faces is 20 years in federal prison, though no sentencing date has been set.

Duva said a case against alleged co-conspirator Hernando Manuel de la Cruz Rivera is still pending.

The Operation Behind It

Operation Take Back America, a Justice Department-led initiative coordinated by Joint Task Force Alpha, targets cartels and other transnational groups involved in human smuggling and trafficking. The prosecution is part of that operation. Duva credited President Donald Trump and his administration for supplying extra resources to go after smugglers, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations.

Duva said funding from Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill gave the Criminal Division money to bring on more prosecutors and put seasoned attorneys into sections working on administration priorities.

Duva’s Warning

Duva issued a warning about the dangers faced by smugglers, pointing to treacherous terrain through South and Central America and across the U.S.-Mexico border. He said migrants get caught in mounting debts along the way, and he noted that they can be pushed into sex trafficking even after they reach the United States.

“It’s all about money,” Duva said of the smugglers’ motives. “Anybody who’s involved with a cartel or transnational smuggling in this regard, it is about money. It’s about preying on people’s misfortune.”

“Our reach is substantial,” Duva said. “We are going to chase these cases no matter where they originate from or where we find them.”

According to the prosecution, the operation was a money-making scheme involving payments to avoid naval patrols. The sequence of events is straightforward: people were placed on a vessel that disappeared, a person confessed to organizing their transport and paying the navy to shield them from inspections, and the craft has since vanished without any trace of those on board. The Justice Department has identified the individual involved, the ship, the destination, and the timing — Oct. 21, 2023 — and has linked the incident to a wider enterprise.

Where the paper stands

The paper backs no one in this matter, for the loss of these lives was not caused by any act of government, but by a perilous sea crossing undertaken without regard for safety, and the paper’s fixed position concerns only the proper limits of government power, which this case does not touch.

Linero Pinto’s confession describes a scheme of bribery and deception, not a failure of law. The smugglers themselves chose the risk, and the Justice Department’s case against them rests on evidence of their own design. No government agency wrote its own authority here; no mandate on private life was imposed. The paper’s position is narrow: it guards against power that gathers in one place, an agency, an office or a party, and it finds none abused in this account.

What the paper would watch for is the scope of any initiative like Operation Take Back America, and whether it extends beyond its stated mission to command resources or attention beyond its proper reach. The paper’s concern is always the same: power that gathers in one place, an agency, an office or a party, gets abused, and the paper will oppose it wherever it appears.

Key Facts

1. The boat left Colombia’s San Andrés Island for Nicaragua on Oct. 21, 2023, carrying approximately 40 migrants and two captains.
2. Linero Pinto admitted helping smuggle the migrants aboard that boat.
3. He bribed members of the Colombian Navy to obtain real-time intelligence about patrol vessel positions between San Andrés Island and Nicaragua.
4. The boat vanished, and no one aboard has been seen or heard from since.
5. Linero Pinto was charged in October 2024, arrested in Colombia that December, and extradited to the United States.
6. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and placing lives in jeopardy, facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

A man arranged for migrants to be placed upon a vessel that has since disappeared, paying the navy to shield it from patrols. The Justice Department has since identified the individual, the craft, the destination, and the moment — Oct. 21, 2023 — while also linking the matter to a wider operation.

Source material: “Top DOJ official warns of deadly smuggling route after 42 vanish at sea,” Fox News.

extradition · human trafficking · immigration · Justice Department · smuggling