OTTAWA: US authorities have arrested a Honduran national for allegedly smuggling several migrants from Central America and Mexico into the United States from Canada, highlighting a rarely seen variation in human smuggling routes amid increased enforcement along the US-Mexico border.
On October 11, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents announced the arrest of 25-year-old Honduran national Héctor Ramón Pérez-Alvarado for allegedly smuggling 15 migrants — 11 Guatemalans and four Mexicans — from Canada into the United States through Derby, Vermont along the northeast US-Canada border, according to an agency press release.
According to an affidavit from US Border Patrol Agent Matthew Palma, on October 7, authorities identified a van making multiple trips to a motel in Derby from the border crossing located on the northeast US-Canada border between the town of Beebe Plain, Québec, Canada and Beebe Plain, Vermont.
While conducting surveillance on the vehicle on October 8, US Border Patrol agents observed five individuals running south from the Canadian side of the border before presumably entering Pérez-Alvarado’s vehicle on the US side, according to the affidavit. After following the vehicle back to the motel, agents stopped the van, which was driven by Pérez-Alvarado. They discovered six other passengers inside, all of whom did not have legal status in the United States, according to the affidavit.
The individuals in the car admitted that they had just illegally crossed the border from Canada into the United States, according to the affidavit. After believing that there might be additional individuals located in the motel room, Pérez-Alvarado provided the agents with his motel room key, where they subsequently found nine more people.
Pérez-Alvarado was charged with human smuggling, according to the criminal complaint. Two other individuals were charged with re-entering the United States after having previously been removed, according to the press release.
