U.S. slaps sanctions on Syrian for human smuggling

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Treasury announced on Wednesday it has imposed sanctions on one Syrian person and his organization for smuggling people to the U.S. border.

The Treasury designated Nasif Barakat and the Barakat Transnational Criminal Organization, accusing the group, which was based in Homs of Syria, of facilitating the smuggling of Syrian and Lebanese nationals to the U.S. border using a variety of travel routes, according to a statement.

The designation was "an important step toward disrupting Barakat's prolific human smuggling operations in Syria and around the world," said Sigal Mandelker, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in the statement.

The sanctions would freeze any assets that a blacklisted person or entity holds under U.S. jurisdiction and ban any U.S. individuals or companies from making business deals with them. Enditem