Dozens trafficked on trains crossing US-B.C. border

The U.S. Homeland Security Agency has arrested two men linked to a human smuggling scheme at the U.S.-British Columbia rail border crossing.

Court documents from the U.S. Attorney's Office show Jesus Ortiz-Plata and Juan Pablo Cuellar Medina are accused of transporting people from Vancouver to Washington state and Oregon – many of whom arrived in British Columbia specifically to cross the border.

“These defendants are allegedly connected to a highly dangerous smuggling scheme in which people are loaded onto freight cars aboard trains traveling from Canada to the United States,” said United States Attorney Tessa M. Gorman.

“Being locked in a freight train car is dangerous: there is no control over heat, cold or ventilation, and people can be injured or killed while moving freight. In one dangerous case last August, some 29 people were rescued from a boxcar filled with plastic pellets. »

According to the prosecution, since 2022, as investigators encountered non-citizens who attempted to illegally cross the border, “a phone number later linked to Ortiz-Plata kept coming up as the number that non-citizens were supposed to contact.”

The office said Oritz-Plata was followed to a home in Everett, Washington, where he, Medina and two others were arrested.

“Medina resided in the apartment where the men resided. Medina was arrested and was identified by a non-citizen as the person who had picked him up after they crossed into the United States.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Ortiz-Plata and Medina face charges including conspiracy to commit illegal transportation of a non-citizen for private financial gain, which it says is punishable by up to ten years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars (USD).

More soon.