HOULTON, Maine — Seven people were arrested in three different border incidents last weekend even though the Maine-Canada border is closed to nonessential traffic because of the pandemic, the U.S. Border Patrol said.
Six Romanians were arrested after illegally crossing the border into the U.S. in a minivan near Hodgdon on Saturday. Two of the six arrested had been deported from the United States in 2017, the Border Patrol said.
That same day, a man was arrested and expelled to Canada after lying about this citizenship status and trying to bring cannabis oil across the border; in a third incident, a U.S. citizen who illegally docked his boat in Canada was detained and fined, the Border Patrol said.
The border between the U.S. and Canada remains closed to non-essential traffic and violators can be fined up to $5,000 dollars for the first offence, said Dennis Harmon, acting Deputy Chief Patrol Agent in Houlton.