Smuggler of Deaf Mexicans Deported
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MEXICO CITY — A man who pleaded guilty in a New York court to smuggling deaf Mexicans into the United States and forcing them to work as trinket vendors has been deported to Mexico to face money-laundering charges, police reported Thursday.
Alfredo Rustrian Paoletti, know by the deaf workers as “the Hearing Man” because he is not deaf, was placed under arrest at the Mexico City airport.
The money-laundering charges stem from the estimated $1 million per year that Rustrian Paoletti and other ringleaders earned by forcing deaf Mexicans to hawk trinkets in subways and shopping malls. A New York court has ordered the proceeds of those operations be distributed among the deaf Mexicans.
In October 1997, Rustrian Paoletti 37, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to recruit, smuggle and keep the Mexicans prisoner.
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