27-07-23, 14:16
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Mysterious Cellphone, Cryptic Instructions & Interrupted Smuggling Run
A Mysterious Cellphone, Cryptic Instructions and An Interrupted Smuggling Run
US Border Patrol Says it Has Arrested Over 4,900 People Crossing Quebec-U.S. Border in The Last 10 Months
On July 20, US Border Patrol agents stopped an accused smuggler from moving 14 Indian nationals across the Canada-U.S. border into New York state. The accused smugglers’ story about how he got into that situation reads a little like something out of a spy novel.
CBC 27 JULY 2023
The accused smugglers’ story about how he got into that situation reads a little like something out of a spy novel
Emergency crews near the shore from a search site in the marshland on the St. Lawrence River in Akwesasne territory on March 31, 2023.
A family of four Indian nationals and four Romanian nationals died attempting to cross the St. Lawrence River.
The alleged driver is Florida resident Abhishek Bhandari, now charged in the U.S. with one count of bringing and harbouring aliens.
Court documents show Bhandari claimed he didn't know the identity of the person who hired him for the job. He told agents an unexpected parcel couriered to his Florida home contained a cellular flip phone and $1,000 cash. The phone rang a few hours later, and a voice told him he needed to pick up "the caller's family" in New York, according to Bhandari's statement.
He agreed to the arrangement and flew to New Jersey, where he said a rented Jeep Wagoneer was waiting for him, with the key in the centre console. From there, he was directed to a Walmart in Plattsburgh, N.Y., about 35 kilometres south of the Canada-U.S. border.
The documents show Bhandari claimed he left the Jeep unlocked and went into the store. He said there was a new cellphone waiting for him when he got back. It rang, and someone told him to drive the back roads along the border.
He told agents that he drove through the area until he heard people talking in the woods, so he stopped "and everyone ran out … and got into the vehicle."
Shortly afterward, U.S. Border Patrol pulled over the vehicle. "The agent noticed numerous passengers stacked on top of one another, covered in debris, wearing wet clothing and some still wearing backpacks," said one court document. It said five of the 14 people were crammed in the SUV's cargo hold and none "could speak English."
That arrest on July 20, in an area of forests and farmlands south of Montreal, may also signal a shift in the tactics of networks that move Indian nationals — one that became necessary after a smuggling operation turned fatal last March, while attempting to move people across the St. Lawrence River.
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