Canadian authorities announced Thursday that they had dismantled a vast migrant smuggling network accused of transporting hundreds of people from Canada to the United States for a year. Four people were arrested and an arrest warrant was issued for four others, said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which collaborated with American authorities in this investigation.
Some migrants are said to have lost their lives while trying to cross the border at night.
The network charged thousands of dollars to migrants, who had already arrived in Canada, but came from elsewhere, and helped them get to the United States by crossing the St. Lawrence border river, the RCMP said. The events took place from July 2022 to June 2023, according to the authorities. Some migrants may have lost their lives while trying to cross the border at night, police said.
“Many foreigners from all over the world come to settle in North America, desperately looking for a better life,” said Inspector Etienne Thauvette, of a special unit fighting cross-border crime. “Transnational criminal networks exploit this desperation to take advantage of these men, women and families, without regard for their well-being,” he added.
Among the suspects aged 21 to 51, there are two people from the indigenous community of Akwesasne, whose territory extends on both banks of the St. Lawrence, near Cornwall, between the province of Ontario and from Quebec to Canada and New York State to the United States. In March 2023, eight people, including two children, were found dead in a swamp on the Akwesasne reserve. They were from two different families, one Romanian-Canadian and the other Indian, and were trying to get to the United States.