Latest news with #Javi
Pink Villa
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Days of Our Lives May 27 Episode Recap: Did Arianna Lie to Gabi About Her Whereabouts? Find Out
In the May 27 episode of Days of Our Lives, the audience saw Arianna lying to her mother, a conversation about jobs with Javi and Leo, along with Gabi and Javi coming face to face. To fill you in, since Javi no longer works for Gabi, he needs another job. Leo suggests that he be a firefighter since it was his dream. Javi is hesitant to do that because of his previous experience with homophobia. Leo makes sure to tell him that if he experiences that again, he will back Javi up. Gabi worries about Arianna's whereabouts Gabi is in full panic mode since her daughter was out all night ans did not answer her texts. After getting snippy with JJ, she thanks him for helping her, given the fact that they have not been on teh best of terms. As the two have food, Gabi goes to worst-case scenario, JJ suggests another possibility that a boy may be involved in this. Meanwhile, the scene shifts to Ari and Doug being in bed at the Salem Inn. As they get dressed, teh duo decides to see each other again, along with Doug assuring that he does not have a girlfriend. Later, as Gabi rushes into the Square, she asks Ari to spill where she was. Ari lies that she was at a childhood friend's house. Later, Javi joins them, and things take a turn as Gabi apologizes for letting him go. Johnny wants to name his child after John After seeing John's condition at the hospital, at home, Johnny tells Chanel that he wants to name their child after John. Chanel saw this as a good idea for when the day arrives. The couple talks about his job at Titan, with Chanel asking if her beau actually wants to work with Xander. Johnny mentioned that Xander wasn't arrested for attacking Philip. Also, he needs a job so he does not have to depend on DiMera money to provide for his family when they have kids. Chanel then notices that he said kids, plural. He then expresses his thankfulness for supporting him, and both end up expressing their adoration and love for one another.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?)
Like protein-packed hot meals in the frozen wilderness, concrete Yellowjackets answers are pretty tough to come by. More from TVLine Yellowjackets Finally Reveals the Antler Queen and Girl in the Pit in Season 3 Finale - Grade It! The Chi Season 7: Phylicia Rashad and Wendy Raquel Robinson Among Guest Cast A Prayer to Yellowjackets' Forest Spirit: Please Let This Be the Girls' Last Season in the Woods And we wouldn't expect anything less from the intricately woven, possibly supernatural Paramount+ With Showtime series. After all, mystery is at the heart of the drama, which unfolds in two timelines: Exactly what happened after a plane full of high school soccer players crashed in the Canadian Rockies in 1996, and how is that experience still affecting the survivors in their present-day lives? We've pulled together a rundown of the show's biggest questions. Among them, in no particular order: Have we met everyone who made it back to suburban New Jersey after the horrific accident? Is Mari experiencing auditory hallucinations or sensing a portent of death? Where the heck was Javi all that time? Is the Antler Queen who we all think it is? And what about that girl in the pit? Our list goes on… but we're sure that you've got Yellowjackets questions you'd like answered, too, as well as theories to share. So if there's something you don't see outlined below, make like a good citizen detective and shout it out in the comments. Scroll down to see our queries, starting with… As Jackie was freezing to death in the Season 1 finale, she had a dream in which her teammates — including the deceased Laura Lee — welcomed her back into the cabin. In that vision, a man stood at the back of the room and said, 'So glad you're joining us. We've been waiting for you.' In the show's press materials, the character is called simply 'Hunter,' and some fans have theorized that he's the man whom the girls found dead in the cabin earlier in the season, and possibly the same person who previously piloted the small plane that Laura Lee later tried to use to escape. When TVLine asked series creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson about whether the mysterious man will have importance moving forward, they confirmed that he would. 'We definitely know who he is, yeah, and we have a whole thing [planned],' Nickerson added. When Natalie and Travis are out hunting/looking for Javi, she comes across a tree that is surprisingly thawed despite the snow and ice surrounding it. The moss is even a vibrant, summery green! The show clearly wants us to pay attention: Nat stops, looks at the tree for a moment and notes how weird it seems. Some fans have theorized that perhaps the heat that melted everything around the tree is coming from an underground source, potentially a tunnel or bunker akin to the one in which Lottie lit candles during the vision she had when Laura Lee baptized her in Season 1. This leads nicely into our next question… UPDATE: As Coach Ben realized in Episode 8, the base of the tree concealed the entrance to an underground hollow that was warm, and that held (among other things) rope and matches. Javi knew about the cave-like structure, too — sheltering there is likely how he stayed alive during his absence from the cabin — and he was most likely trying to lead Natalie there when she was chased by the rest of the team in Episode 8. … how in the heck did Travis' little brother, Javier, survive in the frigid cold without food or shelter for weeks on end? The younger Martinez was gone for two months after the ill-fated Doomcoming in Season 1, yet he seems healthy and whole — if unwilling/unable to talk — when he's found in Season 2's fourth episode. Might Javi have hidden somewhere warm, like the aforementioned and highly hypothetical tunnels/bunker? After all, just moments before they stumble across him, Van and Tai do notice that the ice in the area seems to be melting. UPDATE: As we noted in the previous slide, based on the events of Episode 8, it appears that Javi was hiding out in the cave under the warm tree. There's a lot to suggest that the masked girl wearing the antlers in the series' very first episode, aka the person who seems to be in charge of the barbaric process of killing and eating another girl, is Lottie. After all, as the series progresses, both her supernatural leanings and her ability to command loyalty have grown by the episode. The present-day timeline also seems to hint at Lottie's queenly status: She was the leader of a cult (OK, OK, 'retreat center') who had antlers hanging on the building she calls home. That said: Plenty can happen between now and then in the flashback timeline, so it's completely possible that another girl can and will assume the spiky crown. All we know for sure is that it isn't Misty, who is shown taking off a different mask at the end of that sequence in the series premiere. UPDATE: The events of the Season 2 finale indicate that Natalie was an Antler Queen — but was she the Antler Queen we see in the series premiere? (Christina Ricci sure thinks so.) UPDATE: Season 3, Episode 6 shows us that Shauna (on Lottie's recommendation) was made Antler Queen after the group dethroned Natalie for mercy-killing Ben. UPDATE: The events of the Season 3 finale reveal that Shauna is the Antler Queen depicted in the series' premiere. Early guesses on this one pointed to Jackie, given that the girl who is chased to her death in the series' premiere is wearing Jackie's gold necklace. But the jewelry has changed hands a few times since then: Jackie put it on a scared Shauna on the plane ('It's basically a good-luck charm. Now, nothing can touch you.' Eep!), and Lottie made sure that Shauna came into possession of it after Jackie died. Given the pit victim's hair and skin color and overall build, we're guessing that maybe Mari winds up impaled at the bottom of the hole? UPDATE: Could the girl in the pit be Hannah, one of the hikers who are introduced in Season 3, Episode 7? In addition to the ladies in the photo above, we also know that Van, Lottie and Travis survived the team's trial in the wilderness, though Travis is no longer with us. A rewatch of the slide show at the high school reunion in the Season 1 finale doesn't shed many clues, but can you really rely on accuracy in a multimedia presentation constructed by someone who starts their speech with, ' defines a reunion as a union that is happening again'? UPDATE: Though we (and everyone else) had been led to believe Mel was dead, in Season 3, Episode 8, we learn that she faked her death (!), changed her name to Kelly and married the daughter of Hannah, the woman the girls killed in the forest (!!). Maybe we've just been reading too much Outlander. But there's a Scottish superstition that says the sound of dripping water in a house portends an imminent death… and that's all we can think about every time Mari is the only one in the cabin who hears that incessant, and as-yet unidentified, sound. UPDATE: In Episode 8, Tai also hears the dripping noise, and then Mari hallucinates blood dripping from the wall where the saw, knives and other sharp instruments are kept. UPDATE: In the Season 3 finale, we learn that Mari is the dark-haired girl chased and killed in the pit in the series' premiere… so maybe the dripping sounds was a portent of death, after all? The symbol that showed up on the blackmail notes (nice touch, Jeff) also appears carved into trees in the Canadian wilderness and is, in fact, the shape in which those carved trees are laid out. But what the heck does it mean? Is it a means of protection, like Lottie guessed? An invocation of evil, as others have wondered? And, uh, what is that shape, exactly? Callie, a teenager, is too young to be the baby that Shauna's carrying in the wilderness. (That kid would be in its mid-20s today.) And it's now a matter of record that the survivors won't chow down on the infant if/when it's born. Phew. So… what becomes of Jeff and Shauna's love child? Might we get to meet the littlest survivor in the present-day storyline someday? UPDATE: In Season 2, Episode 6, Shauna has a stillbirth; her son did not survive. Given that it seems like she delivered the placenta first, it appears that she suffered a placental abruption. Yes, there might be some otherworldly entity insinuating itself into the hearts and minds of the crash survivors, and that entity might be strong enough to maintain a lifelong presence. But when you consider what we know to be true — that these girls are scared and starving, and that some of them had mental health issues long before they boarded that private jet — isn't it just as plausible (if not more so) that circumstance and coincidence are making them think, hear, see and feel things that aren't really there? That said: All of that stuff that happened when Lottie suddenly started speaking French and then smashed her head into the window at the seance? Creepy as hell. UPDATE: The Season 2 finale features this interaction between Shauna and Lottie that we think is rather interesting. Lottie is referring to the wilderness and its sway over the team. SHAUNA: You know there's no 'it,' right? It was just us! LOTTIE: Is there a difference? UPDATE: Season 3, Episode 7 reveals that the scary sound the girls keep hearing in the forest has a very mundane, extremely explainable source: Hordes of mating frogs. Yet another sign that maybe all of the spooky stuff is happening in the girls' heads? The visionary-turned-disgraced cult leader wound up dead at the end of Season 3, Episode 4, but it's not clear who offed her. Shauna thinks Misty. Misty thinks Shauna. Van has her suspicions about Tai. And what might that cryptic comment from Lottie's senile father, about the whole thing being an accident and nothing more, mean? UPDATE: In Season 3, Episode 6, Lottie's former cult — er, retreat center — staffer Lisa tells Misty that she saw Tai with Lottie the day she died. UPDATE: In the following episode, Van straight-up asks Tai if she killed Lottie, and Tai doesn't deny it. (But she also doesn't confess.) But then Walter's DNA test of what's under Lottie's fingernails turns up as a match for Shauna… or maybe also Callie? UPDATE: In Season 3, Episode 8, Mel denies killing Lottie. UPDATE: In the Season 3 finale, Misty confronts Callie about killing Lottie, and the teen confesses. She went to Lottie's apartment building to get back the tape Mel sent. Lottie led her to the stairwell and started talking about how Callie had 'It' from the wilderness inside her, and Callie was so upset, she pushed Lottie down the stairs, ending her life. When Shauna was stalked by an unknown person in Season 3, Episode 2, the episode's juxtaposition of past and present storylines hinted that that person might be Melissa, one of her high school soccer teammates. (Read a full recap.) Later, when her car's brakes failed, Shauna assumed Misty had tampered with them… but she later learned that wear-and-tear was at fault. In Season 3, Episode 4, someone closed the door to a walk-in freezer while Shauna was inside. She eventually was released, but the incident scared her. Are the unsettling moments linked? Is Shauna paranoid? At the moment, we don't know. UPDATE: Season 3, Episode 7 indicates that maybe the daughter of Hannah, one of the trio who encountered the girls in the woods, is behind what's happening to Shauna. UPDATE: In the next episode, Mel observes that Shauna is mentally ill and imagining that there's someone out to get her when, in reality, coincidence and benign occurrences are all that's happened. Best of TVLine The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More 'Missing' Shows, Found! The Latest on Severance, Holey Moley, Poker Face, YOU, Primo, Transplant and 25+ Others Summer TV Calendar: Your Guide to 85+ Season and Series Premieres
CBS News
24-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Sinaloa Cartel smuggler at U.S.-Canada border says he'll "always" find a way to get migrants into the U.S.
On February 1st, President Trump imposed 25% tariffs on nearly all goods imported from Canada. Since then, his administration has engaged in an on again off again trade war with our longtime ally. The tariffs were imposed based on the exaggerated claim that millions of criminals and tons of deadly fentanyl have been pouring over the border into the United States— and that Canada has allowed it to happen. Last month we went to the northern border, to the Chazy River, where even in the middle of winter, migrants continue to cross its frozen banks, often guided by human smugglers who openly advertise their services on Facebook and TikTok. If President Trump and the Canadian government really want to tackle illegal immigration there, they might want to start online. Search for 'border excursions' on TikTok and Facebook and you'll find a black market set to music that guarantees migrants safe passage across the northern border. There are posts in Spanish, English, and Punjabi. And reviews like you'd find on Yelp. These men in the back of a car, on their way to a new life in the United States, give their smugglers five stars and a thumbs up. Stretching more than 5,500 miles, the U.S.-Canadian border is the longest international land border in the world. That's the U.S. on the right and Canada on the left. In February, we traveled to an area the U.S. Customs and Border Protection calls the Swanton Sector, which runs from New Hampshire to upstate New York. Last year, more than 80% of migrant apprehensions at the northern border happened here. The Swanton Sector is where this video was recorded in January. A group of men who just crossed the border ran to an SUV that drove them deeper into New York. You'll also see a woman getting out of the car and go north to Canada. This man told us he coordinated the handoff and took the video: Cecilia Vega: Can you tell us who you work for? Javi (in Spanish/English translation): For the Sinaloa Cartel. He goes by the name "Javi" and agreed to speak with us only with his camera off. He said he can't risk his identity being exposed. Cecilia Vega: How does this work? They tell you where to go? They tell you how many people you have to bring across each week? Javi (in Spanish/English translation): Exactly. That's how it goes. They provide the people. They have more people who are behind all this looking for customers, finding them, and summoning them to certain locations. We found Javi through his online ads, which he says TikTok recently took down. In a conversation with our producer, he did briefly turn his camera on and allowed us to record his masked face. While it's not possible to verify everything Javi told us, he sent these pictures of what he says are his guns as proof of his ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. A source in Canadian intelligence told us Javi's story is consistent with the cartel's human and drug smuggling operations. The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the largest and most notorious in Mexico. These are videos Javi sent us of his work. He says he's part of a team of four. Some drive migrants to and from the border and plan logistics, while Javi says he guides people through the woods. The migrants pay about $3,000 each. Javi told us he makes about a thousand dollars per person… $500 go to the cartel -- the rest to the drivers. Some smugglers offer discounts for children. Cecilia Vega: What's the youngest child you've ever crossed? Javi (in Spanish/English translation): Three months. Cecilia Vega: Tres meses.. (Translation: Three months) Javi (in Spanish/English translation): Yes. Babies. Cecilia Vega: what happens if one of the migrants you're working with doesn't pay? Javi (in Spanish/English translation): They cannot go. They are held hostage until they pay up. Cecilia Vega: Until what? Javi (in Spanish/English translation): Until they pay. Cecilia Vega: Do you work only with humans, or do you move drugs also? Javi (in Spanish/English translation): Everything. Cecilia Vega: How much fentanyl do you move across that border? Javi (in Spanish/English translation): Lately, it's been quiet. But for a while there, we were bringing in thirty kilos per month. Cecilia Vega: Wow. Cecilia Vega: The drugs come from? Cecilia Vega: De China? (Translation: From China?) Javi (in Spanish/English translation): From China. Cecilia Vega: De China (Translation: From China) Javi (in Spanish/English translation): I get more into the U.S., but also it goes from the U.S. to Canada. And weapons. How many pounds of drugs come across the northern border into the United States is unknown. President Trump claims tremendous amounts of fentanyl pour into the country through Canada. Last year U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the northern border compared to more than 21,000 pounds confiscated at the U.S.- Mexico border. And while the southern border saw 1.5 million illegal crossings last year, there were fewer than 24,000 illegal crossings from Canada. Sheriff David Favro: See this woodline up here on the left? They come from way over there on the other side of-- you know, back side of Canada and walk along the edge of that woodline. And the woodline continues and goes down to the creek. Then they would follow the creek. Sheriff David Favro oversees Clinton County, New York, which includes about 28 miles of border. Cecilia Vega: Where are the smugglers in all this? Sheriff David Favro: They're-- they're hiding. They're-- they're the cowards that are just taking the money, not caring about the people that are crossing, and what hazards those people might run into. So they're the ones that are just running the business and collecting the cash. Last year in the Swanton Sector, there were more illegal crossings than the previous 17 years combined-- more than 19,000 migrants were arrested there. They came from 97 countries- mostly from India and Mexico. And they cross year round, even through blizzards. In the middle of winter, authorities respond weekly to 911 calls from migrants. In January, six Haitians, including a 9-year-old girl, became lost in the woods and some were hospitalized with serious injuries. Last month, this man from Spain suffered severe frostbite. Sheriff Favro took us down a local road divided by the border. The area is covered by surveillance cameras on both sides. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police saw us and soon after drove by on patrol. Cecilia Vega: when someone is crossing in the dead of winter and there's feet of snow, what are they up against out there? Sheriff David Favro: They're up against a lot. And the worst thing that they're up against is the freezing cold, because the temperatures-- you're-- you're walking through the snow and your pants are getting wet, your boots are gonna start soaking through eventually, and they don't even realize. They're so desperate and so quick to try and get to where-- where they're-- they wanna be, that they don't realize frostbite is setting in. And that's one of the biggest dangers. The case Sheriff Favro says he'll never forget is the death of Ana Vazquez-Flores . Residents of Champlain, New York erected a memorial in honor of her and her unborn baby. The 33-year-old supermarket worker was 5 months pregnant with her first child when she and her husband flew from Mexico to Montreal in December 2023. They found this Colombian man who advertised on TikTok and hired him to guide Ana across the border. Text messages taken from court documents show they paid him $2,500. Ana's husband asked "... is it safe?" "Well, look…truth is the only certain thing in life is death, but we are effective." On the evening of December 11th, Ana began her walk alone through the snow. The alleged smuggler tracked her by GPS on their phones and texted directions. It was dark and the temperature was below freezing. Ana's husband had a visa to work in the United States and was waiting for her in New York. He wrote: "have you already picked her up?" "She is crossing friend." "I am very nervous." her husband said. Forty minutes later, the alleged smuggler wrote, "bro, hello, I think she got wet or turned off her cell phone." Investigators think Ana was following his instructions when she stepped into the icy Chazy River. She was already in America. Three days later park rangers and sheriff Favro's deputies found Ana's body. The alleged smuggler was arrested at his home in Quebec by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at the request of the U.S. Justice Department. He was extradited to the United States in February. He pleaded not guilty to smuggling charges and is being held at the Clinton County jail. Sheriff Favro says that's the type of coordination that should happen between neighbors. Sheriff David Favro: I find it unusual that up here along the northern border with all the attention that we've had, I haven't been contacted by anybody at a federal level, really, other than the Border Patrol. We work hand in hand with the Border Patrol. Cecilia Vega: But you've not heard from Washington, from the White House, from anybody in the president's administration who have been looking intently at your border here? Sheriff David Favro: No. This six-time elected sheriff-- a Democrat-- does credit President Trump's immigration policies for the drop in illegal crossings that he's seen at the northern border. And while Sheriff Favro welcomes a lull, after 43 years in law enforcement, he says the quiet rarely lasts. Sheriff David Favro: Today, our state of mind is, "When is something gonna happen?" That's-- that's the big concern. And that's always in the back of, I think, every law enforcement member's mind. When is --when is something going to occur? When the numbers are down it gets eerily quiet and we kind of worry about quiet. We like it when-- when things are just steady so that we-- we know what's going on, have a better handle on it. Cecilia Vega: You don't trust the quiet– Sheriff David Favro: We-- we– Cecilia Vega: That it's gonna stick– Sheriff David Favro: We just don't trust the quiet is gonna stick. Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney retaliated with tariffs in response to President Trump's tariffs. But the Canadian government did concede to Trump's complaints about the border and announced a nearly billion dollar plan to strengthen border security, by adding more boots on the ground, helicopters and drones and appointed a fentanyl czar. Cecilia Vega: Are tariffs the answer? Kelly Sundberg: The tariffs have disrupted relationships between our two countries both economically and socially. I mean, I don't see Canada as really being the issue here. Yeah, the border needs to be secured, but there's better ways of doing it than threatening your largest and longest standing partner. Professor Kelly Sundberg spent 15 years as an officer in the Canadian Border Services Agency and now researches border security at Mount Royal University in Calgary. Kelly Sundberg: We've done a lotta great steps in trying to keep the border open. On the Canadian side we have fallen short in keeping it secure. We do not have-- a Border Patrol, such as the United States. We have very few officers. So-- equivalent to ICE-- so your Immigration Customs Enforcement in the United States-- which has thousands of officers, for our entire country we have 400. Clearly, if we're going to-- address the concerns of President Trump-- let alone the concerns of many Canadians also, is we need to increase those numbers. Cecilia Vega: You'd like to see more? Kelly Sundberg: For the number of cases that we have, I've calculated we probably need around 4,000 to 5,000 officers nationally. Last month Canada and the United States -- on the same day-- declared the Sinaloa Cartel a terrorist organization. We spoke to Javi again this week and he told us the cartel has since had to change the way it moves drugs across the northern border, but the designation has not affected how many people they smuggle into the United States illegally. Cecilia Vega: What has the return of Donald Trump meant for your business? Javi (in Spanish/English translation): There's always going to be business. Later on, Donald Trump's time will pass, and this will continue. This is not going to stop. Cecilia Vega: If they put more border patrol officers at the border, if they put more checkpoints, is there anything anyone can do to stop you from moving people across the border? Javi: No. No. Cecilia Vega: Nada? (Translation: nothing?) Javi (in Spanish/English translation): No, nothing. There's always a way. The border between Canada and the U.S. is much bigger than the one with Mexico. You can always get in. Cecilia Vega: You'll find another way. Javi (in Spanish/English translation): Always. Produced by Michael Rey and Jaime Woods. Associate producer, Luisa Garcia. Broadcast associates, Katie Jahns and Georgia Rosenberg. Edited by Matthew Lev.
CBS News
24-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
On the Canadian border with a Mexican cartel smuggler
To get drugs and people across the United States border, a Mexican man named Javi carefully traces a route through dangerous terrain. A self-described member of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, he says the cartel never loses: If a situation ever becomes unsafe and he has to turn people around mid-route, Javi says he still must give the cartel their cut of the deal. Not only does he have to be on the lookout for border guards eager to arrest him, but he also must keep himself and the people he is smuggling physically safe. Such is life as a smuggler on the U.S. border with Canada . President Trump has said the situation on America's northern border has contributed to deterioration of America's alliance with Canada. Trump recently imposed 25% tariffs on some Canadian goods, saying America's northern neighbor has allowed fentanyl and undocumented migrants to flood the United States. Since smugglers bring both, 60 Minutes spoke with one to get a sense of the situation. Javi, the man 60 Minutes spoke with, is a pseudonym. He agreed to speak only if his identity was not revealed. Interviews with him were conducted in Spanish. Finding a smuggler on the northern border was easy. There is a black market of human traffickers who openly advertise their services on social media and guarantee safe passage across the northern border for migrants from all over the world. Their social media posts are written in languages like English, Spanish, and Punjabi. They use global languages for a global trade: There were 97 nations represented in the undocumented migrants apprehended at Canada's border last year. Convincing someone who works for the Sinaloa Cartel to do an interview, however, was more challenging. It took months of phone calls and texting between Javi and CBS News producer Louisa Garcia to earn his trust and convince him to speak with 60 Minutes. Javi was frank when asked what might happen if members of the cartel found out he spoke with American media. "They would kill me," he said in Spanish. "The cartel doesn't forgive." Although it's not possible to verify everything Javi said, a source in Canadian intelligence told 60 Minutes that Javi's story is consistent with the cartel's human and drug smuggling operations. To prove his account, Javi sent photos of guns he says he carries and videos of migrants he says he has smuggled into the United States. He said they come from all over the world, including India, Spain, Brazil, and Colombia. He said he leads them through the woods, while others drive migrants to and from the border. According to Javi, each migrant pays $3,000 for the trip. Javi said $500 of that goes to the cartel, a cut goes to drivers, and to Javi, about $1,000 for each migrant he guides. He said the knowledge he has cultivated makes the money worth it for the migrants. "The route is learned through experience," he said. "You have to know the terrain. The only way to know the routes is by exploring on your own. For example, we recognize the spots because all of us who work in this have worked as guides on the Mexico-U.S. border. That's a much more heavily monitored and guarded border, so it's easy to spot the cameras and sensors." Javi told 60 Minutes his business works mostly through recommendations. Once someone has crossed safely into the United States, they pass his name on to their friends and family back home looking to do the same. Still, the number of crossings remains far lower on the northern border than on the southern border. While the border between the U.S. and Mexico saw 1.5 million illegal crossings last year, there were fewer than 24,000 illegal crossings from Canada. Javi said he ultimately agreed to speak with 60 Minutes to warn potential future migrants about the dangers of crossing the northern border without a guide like him. "It's good for people to know that they shouldn't risk it, that there are really a lot of dangers," Javi said. "And all the mistakes that are made make the border hotter [for us], make there be more surveillance, because people go alone. A lot of people go alone, and that complicates things more for us." The "us" Javi referred to is the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the largest and most notorious in Mexico. In February, both the United States and Canada designated it and other cartels as terrorist organizations. Javi said that at one section of the border, which he said smugglers call the "line," some Americans allow smugglers like him to use their property to move migrants — and get paid to do it. "Our driver comes in, loads up, and we pay them a fee," Javi said. "There are different entry points, but it's from $500 to $1,000 per person." Javi told 60 Minutes he began smuggling drugs for the cartel when he was a teenager. Back in Mexico, he had wanted to be an electrical engineer but said it is too late to change careers now — the cartel is aware he knows too much. Eventually, he said, he went to the border between Mexico and the U.S. and started guiding migrants north, learning how to cross the Sonoran Desert in a matter of days. He said when the opportunity to go to the Canadian border came up, he took it. Now, he said, his business is changing with the Trump administration. Today, Javi said he is getting more requests to smuggle people out of the U.S — and into Canada. "Most of them are Venezuelans," he said. "Those people are afraid of being deported to their countries. Normally before we didn't see that much, maybe out of every 30 people we crossed, three or four would come up. Now, maybe out of every 10 we cross, five go up [to Canada]." Canadian Kelly Sundberg said the data confirms this shift. "Canada can expect a tsunami of illegal immigrants fleeing American authorities and coming into our country," said Sundberg, who spent 15 years as an officer in the Canadian Border Services Agency and now researches border security at Mount Royal University in Calgary. "The numbers already are going up." Sundberg attributes the change to the Trump administration's increasing removal of undocumented migrants, particularly actions such as sending alleged Venezuelan gang members to Guantanamo Bay. Canada's lax border compounds this, Sundberg said. "I hope I'm wrong, but it would appear that we're going to be overwhelmed by the illegal immigrants fleeing American authorities coming into our country," he continued. "And they very well might be bringing guns and drugs with them." Sundberg noted that data shows 90% of guns used to commit crimes in Canada have originated in the United States. As for drugs, at the northern border, the flow goes both ways. Javi said that cocaine comes up through the United States from Mexico to be brought into Canada, while smugglers bring fentanyl from China to the U.S. through the northern border. Still, only about 0.2% of the fentanyl seized in the U.S. last year came in through Canada: U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the northern border, compared to more than 21,000 pounds confiscated at the U.S.-Mexico border. 60 Minutes asked Javi if he ever thinks about the people who die from drugs like fentanyl. "Yes, I think about it, but people die from drugs everywhere, in every place," he said. "The problem here isn't that people die. The problem is that as long as there's demand, there will always be someone to take it. There will always be someone to sell it, someone to bring it. Unfortunately, here, for money, we do anything. It's business, it's a business." And that business, it seems, will continue. Javi said increased border patrols in Canada would not stop the Sinaloa cartel from operating there. "Canada's border is much larger than Mexico's," he went on. "There are more entry points through Canada than through Mexico, a lot more entry points. So that won't stop us." Photo of fentanyl seized courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The video above was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and edited by Scott Rosann.
CBS News
24-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Trump is targeting illegal immigration at the U.S.-Canada border. Here's how some migrants cross there.
An upstate New York sheriff, whose county sits along the U.S.-Canada border, credits President Trump's immigration policies for a recent lull in illegal immigration , but warned that he doesn't believe the quiet will last. Sheriff David Favro oversees Clinton County, New York, which includes about 28 miles of the northern border region the U.S. Customs and Border Protection calls the Swanton Sector. Last year, there were more illegal crossings in the Swanton Sector than in the previous 17 years combined, with more than 19,000 migrants arrested. Favro, a Democrat and six-time elected sheriff, said there's been a recent lull. "Today, our state of mind is, 'When is something gonna happen?' That's the big concern. And that's always in the back of, I think, every law enforcement member's mind," Favro said. "When is something going to occur? When the numbers are down it gets eerily quiet and we kind of worry about quiet." While the southern border saw 1.5 million illegal crossings last year, there were fewer than 24,000 illegal crossings from Canada. More than 80% of migrant apprehensions at the northern border happened in the Swanton Sector last year. The migrants arrested last year came from 97 countries, but were mostly from India and Mexico. They cross year round, even through blizzards. In the middle of winter, authorities respond weekly to 911 calls from migrants. Six Haitians, including a 9-year-old girl, became lost in the woods and some were hospitalized with serious injuries in January. Last month, a man from Spain suffered severe frostbite. "They're up against a lot. And the worst thing that they're up against is the freezing cold , because the temperatures, you're walking through the snow and your pants are getting wet, your boots are gonna start soaking through eventually, and they don't even realize," Favro said. "They're so desperate and so quick to try and get to where they want to be, that they don't realize frostbite is setting in. And that's one of the biggest dangers." Favro said he will never forget the death of Ana Vazquez-Flores, a pregnant woman who died while trekking across the border in the snow in 2023. Vazquez-Flores and her husband had found a Colombian man living in Quebec who advertised smuggling services on TikTok. They'd hired him to guide Vazquez-Flores across the border. Searching for "border excursions" on TikTok and Facebook brings up a number of ads purporting to guarantee migrants safe passage across America's 5,525 mile-long shared border with Canada. There are posts in Spanish, English and Punjabi, and reviews from clients. 60 Minutes found one smuggler, who goes by the name Javi, through his online ads, which he says TikTok recently took down. Javi said he works for the Sinaloa Cartel arranging human and drug smuggling across America's northern border. While it's not possible to verify everything Javi said, he sent pictures of guns he says are his as proof of his cartel ties. A source in Canadian intelligence said Javi's story is consistent with the cartel's human and drug smuggling operations. Javi said the cartel provides the customers. "They have more people who are behind all of this looking for customers, finding them, and summoning them to certain locations," he said in Spanish. Javi said he's part of a team of four. Some drive migrants to and from the border and plan logistics, while Javi says he guides people through the woods. Migrants pay about $3,000 each: Javi said he makes about a thousand dollars per person, while $500 goes to the cartel and the rest to the drivers. Migrants who fail to pay are held hostage until they pay, Javi said. Some smugglers offer discounts for children. Javi said he's guided families with babies as young as three months across the border. Mr. Trump has instituted tariffs on Mexico and Canada, at times linking them to the drugs and migrants coming across America's borders. "Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem," he said in a November Truth Social post . "We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!" Canada's new Prime Minister Mark Carney retaliated with tariffs of his own, but the Canadian government did concede to Mr. Trump's complaints about the border and announced a nearly billion dollar plan to strengthen border security, adding more boots on the ground, helicopters and drones and a new fentanyl czar. Professor Kelly Sundberg, who spent 15 years as an officer in the Canadian Border Services Agency and now researches border security at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said Canada does not have a border patrol like the one in the U.S. and has many fewer immigration enforcement officers. "Clearly, if we're going to address the concerns of President Trump, let alone the concerns of many Canadians also, …we need to increase those numbers," Sundberg said. He believes that Canada needs 4,000-5,000 officers added nationally. He also doesn't see tariffs as the answer. "The border needs to be secured, but there's better ways of doing it than threatening your largest and longest standing partner," he said. It's unknown exactly how many pounds of drugs cross the border into the United States. Mr. Trump claims "tremendous" amounts of fentanyl pour into the country through Canada, but last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the northern border, compared to more than 21,000 pounds confiscated at the U.S.-Mexico border. Last month Canada and the U.S., on the same day, declared the Sinaloa Cartel a terrorist organization. Javi, the smuggler, said the cartel has since had to change the way it moves drugs across the northern border, but the designation has not affected how many people they smuggle into the U.S. illegally. "There's always going to be business. Later on, Donald Trump's time will pass, and this will continue," Javi said. "This is not going to stop." Javi claims more border control and more checkpoints will not stop smugglers from moving people across the border. "There's always a way. The border between Canada and the U.S. is much bigger than the one with Mexico," he said. "You can always get in."
