But the smuggling fee - which Border Patrol officials said averages about $1,500 but can reach $8,000 or higher - does not guarantee a safe passage.

Each month, they sent home $2,000 to pay off the exorbitant smuggling fees.

This time, convinced they would never recover the smuggling fee, they started talking about killing him.

And Mr. Cho would receive a cut of $7,000 from the smuggling fee paid by each immigrant.

They take charge of the immigrants on arrival and hold them in bare apartments, basements and warehouses until friends or relatives pay the smuggling fees.

Those in good physical condition, usually the younger men, must sign a contract requiring them to repay their smuggling fee at high rates of interest.

Many Fujianese borrow the smuggling fee from family and friends, some of whom have already carved out a life in the U.S.

But prosecutors said he had paid little heed to whether his clients were criminals, merely raising his smuggling fees when he learned of such complications.

Human smugglers were holding them ransom until family members paid exorbitant smuggling fees.

He has already paid off the smuggling fee.