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New York woman charged with smuggling Indian nationals across Canada-US border
The woman has been accused of being part of an international smuggling conspiracy, under which individuals, mainly from India, were brought illegally to the US.
A 42-year-old woman from New York has been charged with smuggling Indian Nationals into the US through Canada.
The woman, identified as Stacey Taylor, has been accused of being part of an international smuggling conspiracy, under which individuals, primarily from India, were brought illegally to the US, PTI news agency reported.
According to an official statement, the woman, from Plattsburgh, appeared for an arraignment earlier this week after being indicted by a federal grand jury in Albany in October.
Taylor's vehicle was stopped by US Border Patrol agents near the Quebec border in Churubusco, New York in the early morning hours in January, PTI cited court records as showing. After her arrest in January, Taylor has also been implicated in a smuggling conspiracy as recently as September this year.
After her vehicle was stopped in January, the border patrol agents found four foreign nationals inside the woman's vehicle, three of them being Indian nationals and one Canadian national. The four had crossed the US-Canadian border illegally, without any checks.
Taylor's cellphone, which was later inspected by law enforcement officials amid the probe, also revealed text messages indicating that she had been involved in multiple other such smuggling activities prior to being caught.
Following this, Taylor was charged with conspiring with others to engage in alien smuggling, and four counts of alien smuggling for profit, according to the indictment. Among these, three counts were second or subsequent offences.
If the indictment does turn into a conviction, Taylor could face a mandatory minimum penalty of of five years' imprisonment, per count of alien smuggling for profit.
In addition to this, she might receive additional time for second and subsequent offences, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division Matthew Galeotti said in the statement.
