Greiby Melissa Barcelo-Velasquez, a Colombian national, was sentenced to 2 ½ years in federal prison for conspiracy to encourage and induce undocumented immigrants to unlawfully enter the United States. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona announced the sentence on Monday.
Court documents show that Barcelo-Velasquez was responsible for coordinating a smuggling operation that helped over 100 individuals illegally cross into the U.S. through Arizona. Since June 2023, Barcelo-Velasquez ran a travel agency called Baul Travel SAS in Colombia, where she facilitated illegal immigration.
The investigation into Barcelo-Velasquez began in late 2023 after U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations apprehended several Colombian nationals who identified her as their smuggling coordinator. Barcelo-Velasquez charged clients fees and directed them to travel to Mexico, falsely posing as tourists. She also instructed clients to pay additional bribes at airports in Cancun or Mexico City to ease their passage.
Once in Hermosillo, Mexico, migrants were held in stash houses near the U.S.-Mexico border, where they awaited their illegal crossing into the U.S. Armed gunmen then transported them to the border, where they illegally crossed into Arizona.
Barcelo-Velasquez’s operation was part of a larger Joint Task Force Alpha investigation targeting human smuggling networks linked to cartels and transnational criminal organizations across Mexico, Colombia, and Central America. The initiative has led to 355 arrests and 320 convictions to date.
