FORT COVINGTON: Christopher Square, age 29, of Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada, was sentenced on Friday to serve 9 months in prison for alien smuggling, according to United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian here the other day.
In August, Square pled guilty before United States District Court Judge David N. Hurd to transporting aliens unlawfully present in the United States. Hurd also sentenced Square to serve a two-year term of supervised release, to begin after his release from prison.
Square, a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, was prosecuted after he was encountered by Border Patrol on May 3, just south of the international border between the United States and Canada near Fort Covington, with three illegal alien passengers in the van he was driving, Hartunian said.
Square was observed driving near the border on the Akwesasne territory, and then leaving the reservation and driving toward Fort Covington. When a marked Border Patrol vehicle approached the van Square was driving, Square pulled off the road and stopped, and three people were seen exiting the van and hiding nearby. Square was arrested, according to Hartunian, and the three people who exited his van were found hiding nearby and they were detained as aliens unlawfully present in the U.S.
Two of the smuggled aliens, Ruie Huang, 28, from China, and Bi Rong Chen, 37 of Canada, were convicted of the misdemeanor offense of entry without inspection.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Border Patrol and prosecuted by Edward P. Grogan.
