Many of the travelers, unassociated with any extremist group, genuinely came fleeing war or in search of work. But some, once in the United States, committed fraud to obtain Social Security numbers, driver's licenses or false immigration documents, court records showed.
One, Lebanese carpenter Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, admitted spending part of his time in the United States raising money to support Hezbollah -- at least $40,000, according to an FBI affidavit.
U.S. homeland security officials maintain they know of no cases of Al Qaeda operatives using smuggling operations to enter over the northern or southern boundaries, although they warn that intelligence suggests the group is eyeing the borders as a way in.
"Several Al Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico ... ," Jim Loy, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told a congressional committee in February. Further, he said, "entrenched human smuggling networks and corruption in areas beyond our borders can be exploited by terrorist organizations."
The Boughader case and others show how easy it would be.
Smugglers employ recruiters and facilitators in such special-interest countries as Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan. One immigrant testified in a 2002 case about a "market of passports" in Iraq where individuals could illegally purchase travel documents.
These special-interest smugglers use staging areas and transportation coordinators in such places as Quito, Ecuador; Lima, Peru; Cali, Colombia; and Guatemala City. They pay for foot guides, drivers and stash-house operators in Mexico and the United States.
They have moved people by plane -- into suburban Washington, D.C., Florida, California. And they have crossed clients in vehicles or on foot into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and over the Canadian border.
They have partnered with other smugglers transporting Mexican or Central American migrants.
"People from places in the Middle East will hear about who to go through, and they tend to be people from their same country, but once you get into the system we saw associations that really were driven by, 'What's the most effective way for me to move my product?' " said Laura Ingersoll, an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.
"A Mafia," is how one of Boughader's clients, Roland Nassib Maksoud, once described the business.
