Mounties arrest 4 for smuggling humans
5/14/09 | 22 comments

Mounties arrest 4 for smuggling humans


By Diana Graettinger
BDN Staff

ST. STEPHEN, New Brunswick — The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested four people Wednesday in what they characterize as an organized crime group involved in the human smuggling of migrants into the United States from Canada.

Savita Singh, 43, of St. Stephen and Vaughn McLuskey, 71, of Fredericton were arrested in New Brunswick, while Ontario residents Mohammed Habib-Yusef, 53, and Ravindra Hariprasad, 36, were arrested in Scarborough, Ontario.

The four face charges of criminal conspiracy to violate immigration laws. They were expected to appear in St. Stephen Provincial Court Thursday.

The three men and one woman were arrested by the RCMP’s Atlantic Region Immigration and Passport Section, working closely with the RCMP’s Integrated Border Enforcement Team in New Brunswick.

“Human smuggling involves the illegal movement of persons across international borders, with their consent, in exchange for a sum of money,” the RCMP said in a press release. “At this point of the investigation the RCMP have intercepted two migrants from Guyana [that] this group was trying to smuggle into the United States.” Guyana is a former British colony on the northern coast of South America.

The Canadian charges are similar to trouble Singh had in Maine in 2005. That summer, she was arrested by authorities in the United States and subsequently pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle three illegal aliens from Guyana into the U.S. at the Calais border crossing. At the time she went by the name Savita Singh-Murray. She later was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor to 132 days in jail, which was time served, on the charge.

Judge John Woodcock at the time admonished Singh-Murray for her involvement in what prosecutors suspected was a plot to bring young women into the country to be forced to work as prostitutes.

It was not clear Wednesday whether the Canadian organized crime group had a connection to an organized crime group in the United States. All RCMP officials would say was that the investigation was ongoing.

“Human smuggling is often connected to other serious crimes such as drug smuggling and money laundering,” RCMP Atlantic Region Immigration and Passport Section investigator Wesley Blair said in the release. “Since organized crime groups involved in human smuggling are profit-driven, they do not often distinguish between migrants who are looking for a better way of life and migrants who are dangerous criminals.”

This month’s arrests in Canada were part of an ongoing RCMP investigation that began in New Brunswick last winter and expanded to include alleged criminal conduct in Ontario.

Sgt. Rick Bernard of the RCMP J Division Border Integrity said in a telephone interview Wednesday that the two Guyanese never made it into the United States.

“Through our investigation we were able to identify a human smuggling activity that was going to take place on the border between Ontario and maybe New York state,” Bernard said. “Our investigators got on that and were able to intercept the two migrants that were going to cross into the U.S. They were intercepted on the Canadian side.”

The migrants have been turned over to Canada Border Services and processed for eventual deportation, he said.

Although the investigation was handled in Canada, Bernard said, Canadian officials worked closely with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security including Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Border Patrol.

“We work closely with them on every one of our border-related investigations,” he said.

The four suspects are expected to enter pleas on the charges in their court appearance today. “Then a judge will make the ultimate decision on whether or not they will be released or held pending trial,” Bernard said.

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Comments
22 comments on this item
On 5/13/09 at 9:50 PM, dkenzie77 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

wtg royal mounites,

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On 5/13/09 at 10:03 PM, JillT1981 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I've heard of smuggling drugs, smuggling wild animals, reptiles and insects, even smuggling cigars, fireworks, furs, internal organs, whatever....and now we have HUMAN smuggling....

.......awesome.....

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On 5/13/09 at 10:19 PM, dkenzie77 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

lol jill

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On 5/14/09 at 3:15 AM, bobsmith wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I heard they were going to work at Worcester Weath and L RAY packing, Thanks again

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On 5/14/09 at 5:52 AM, Sledman wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Kudos to The Mounties but goes to show you how effective our border / immigration policies & enforcers are........................

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On 5/14/09 at 5:52 AM, anonon wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Fine the dam companies

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On 5/14/09 at 6:05 AM, patom1 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Good job, mounties and all involved. I however feel that this is just a tip of an iceberg. These four that were arrested are now on the radar screen and will be able to be followed and traced in their futue activities. They obviously weren't acting alone.

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On 5/14/09 at 6:20 AM, outdoorman wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

These 4 are only a small percentage of the ones who get caught. Big deal. If they had any brains, they could have gone to Mexico and walked into the United States ysterday with the other 5,000 illegals who came into this country. What is the point in having border crossings if the entire border is not protected. Canada seems to have their act together. Can't say the same for Mexico, or the U.S. in that deprtment. The ACLU is making it difficult for laws to be enforced regarding illegal terrorists. They take the cheap road and say they are just here to work. How would they know, are they friends of theirs?

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On 5/14/09 at 7:33 AM, drc480 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The whole country is going to the dogs,,, and it is going to get worse that Obama is in the White House,,,, WHAT A JOKE HE IS,,, NO WONDER THERE IS NO WORK IN THIS COUNTRY. All of the people that are coming into this country are taking the jobs away from people from Maine,, etc

I think that I m going to give up and retire on my S.S. of the great sum of 600.00 a month God Bless this country

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On 5/14/09 at 8:10 AM, Knightscross wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

bobsmith you speak the truth. Your the MAN.

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On 5/14/09 at 8:12 AM, Knightscross wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

It is time the owners of these companies that hire Illegal Aliens are put in jail for breaking the Immigration Laws.

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On 5/14/09 at 8:22 AM, berquis wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

drc...could YOU do a better job than Obama? I see a lot of people rising to COMPLAIN but don't see a lot of other GOOD ideas being brought forth... It's easy to sit back and judge not so easy to do something and make a CHANGE. And sure these people are acting this way because of our president, I have no doubt that that is the reason....*Sarcasm? YES*

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On 5/14/09 at 8:25 AM, mainelifer wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

They didn't like the fact that we are the oldest and whitest state in the union.

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On 5/14/09 at 8:48 AM, pcme2000 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Were have you been JillT1981 ? there has been human smuggling for many many years.

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On 5/14/09 at 9:26 AM, JillT1981 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Are you that much of a miser that you can't see the humor in that statement, pcme2000. I was simply getting a chuckle out of the way the article's headline was worded. Friggin Idiot.

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On 5/14/09 at 11:39 AM, boogyman wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

“Since organized crime groups involved in human smuggling are profit-driven, they do not often distinguish between migrants who are looking for a better way of life and migrants who are dangerous criminals.”

Neither do Liberals.

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On 5/14/09 at 12:41 PM, sorryexcuseforastate wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

i must break you

dragggggggggoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

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On 5/14/09 at 3:31 PM, duaneofAZ wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Thats an everyday thing here in AZ. An illegal will pay 3000.00-5000.00 to get accros the border.

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On 5/14/09 at 7:12 PM, wallyo wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Just shoot them, they will stop coming after the word gets out.

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On 5/14/09 at 9:06 PM, baltimorean wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

People sneaking into Maine to work while all the jobs are sneaking out! Mainelifer you're making assumptions-they could've been sneaking OLD migrant workers in!

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On 5/15/09 at 7:53 AM, kateindfcity wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

What does Obama being president have to do with the decline of our economy? He's been in office for like, 4 months, and you want to blame him? How about point your finger at a certain spoiled Bush child who was in office for eight YEARS. (And by child, I am referring to the age he acted or still acts).

And while I agree that yes, we should be prohibiting people from entering our country illegally, I don't think that shooting them is a smart idea, wallyo. You were probably being sarcastic, but I tend to look at what happened in the past to define what's going to happen in the future, or may happen. Didn't we, as a population, get here by raiding a land that did not belong to us. Yes, it is land, and it may not have actually BELONGED to the American-Indians, but I'm pretty sure that us causing mayhem and strife by trying to eradicate them is much more violent than some illegal aliens quietly crossing the border in the back of a car. I'm not saying it's justified, I'm just saying, get down off your high horses. I know that we are losing jobs left and right and that our economy is in the pissah' but I'm pretty sure that's because we are depending on other countries to loan us billions of dollars, make our things, and take our customer service calls for us.

Peace.

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On 5/15/09 at 8:27 AM, Juddy53 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

drc480 ----you are so sick, you should b sent to iraq to live and get shot at over there rather than b in this country. You think obama is a problem for this country? The whole country has already gone to the dogs! It is no longer a guestion that it ias going.it is gone! IT IS DONE! Your most likely a republican who helped vote Bush into the prior seat that Obama now hold. You need to understand that what problems this country has today were not put here by O bama but his prdesesor GEORGIE BUST

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