From Jan 29

Crook County Deputy Captain Hodge pulled over a New York passenger vehicle for speeding on January 21 at approximately 12:45 pm at mile marker 183 on Interstate 90. When he approached the vehicle he observed that the vehicle contained five male subjects all appearing to be Middle Eastern descent.

The driver, Kewal Singh produced a driver's license and a rental agreement, Deputy Hodge observed that Mr. Singh was not an authorized driver of the vehicle. Two of the subjects stated they had lost their passports in New York City.

Deputy Hodge returned to his patrol vehicle and had dispatch run all of the names through National Crime Information Center and also had her contact Immigration and Naturalization Services to see if they could find some kind of information on the subjects. Deputy Hodge reviewed the other documents and concluded that Balbir Singh and Kewal Singh had flown into Seattle WA from New York City and had picked up the other three subjects up somewhere on their trip. The identification card that Parmjit Singh produced appeared to be a false document.

Dispatch notified the Deputy that she had received several officer cautions and hits on various names and dates of birth. The Deputy could not verify that these were the same people. At this piont , Deputy Hodge decided to escort the vehicle to the Crook County Sherriffs Office with the assistance of Undersherriff Adams and Trooper Quadeto further the investigation of the subjects.

The deputy was able to obtain information through the investigation that Parmjit had been smuggled from Pakistan into the United States through New York by and Asian smuggler. Parmjit stated that he paid $20,000 to the smuggler for fake passport and documnets. He also revealed that Kulwant Singh had been smuggled in from India into Mexico and then into the Untied States by an Asian smuggler. Kulwant stated that he paid $4,000 to the smuggler for fake passports and other documents. Investigations also revealed that Sukhwinder Singh had been smuggled in from India to Mexico and then into the United States by a Mexican smuggler. Sukhwinder also revealed that he had paid $10,500 to a Mexican smuggler for fake passport and other documents.

Balbir and Kewal were verified to have temporary work permits and passports and were released with no charges. Parmjit, Kulwant and Sukhwinder were turned over to the Fedral Authorities to be prosecuted.