Latest news with #Romanian-Canadian
CBC
21-03-2025
- CBC
Human smugglers trafficked in Canadian passports, posed security threat, RCMP records allege
A "sophisticated" human smuggling organization run from Montreal posed a threat to national security through its connections to an international network that trafficked in forged Canadian passports, according to allegations in RCMP files obtained by CBC News. The smuggling organization developed an ability to subvert "all regular immigration and security protocols," and this created implications for "Canada's national security," concluded authorities in a report summarizing the investigation, called Project O-ctopus. Cellphone data, including WhatsApp messages, documents, videos and photos, gathered during the investigation revealed details of a suspected "larger network … involved in the fabrication of counterfeit passports," according to the report. The report said members of this network claimed to have access to "insiders at embassies." Investigators speculated that these insiders were "willing to issue visas for a fee to bypass regular airport travel and security protocols," said the document. None of the allegations contained in the document have been proven in court. WATCH | CBC News obtains video evidence from human smuggling investigation: Video evidence reveals inner workings of human smuggling investigation 3 days ago Duration 9:24 In March 2023, a human smuggling run turned deadly when two families drowned while trying to enter the U.S. across the St. Lawrence River. Now, CBC News has obtained documents and surveillance video showing their final days as well as the inner workings of an RCMP investigation that was underway when the tragedy occurred. The investigation began July 2022 and aimed to disrupt human smuggling groups operating throughout the Ontario border town of Cornwall and the neighbouring Haudenosaunee territory of Akwesasne, which spreads across the Canada-U.S. border about 120 kilometres west of Montreal. The probe was led by the RCMP with support from the Ontario Provincial Police, Canada Border Services Agency, Akwesasne Mohawk Police and U.S. Border Patrol. Wide-ranging investigation Investigators obtained warrants to search cellphones and place tracking devices on vehicles while gathering intelligence from foreign nationals detained before and after they crossed the Canada-U.S. border. They wove each of these strands into an intricately detailed case against this purported human smuggling network. The investigation also linked the organization to the deaths of nine people — including two families, one Indiana and one Romanian-Canadian — on the St. Lawrence River in March 2023 during a U.S.-bound human smuggling run. Project O-ctopus culminated with raids on three homes in the Montreal area in June 2023, including the Pierrefonds-Roxboro residence of the alleged boss of the organization, Thesingarasan Rasiah. The RCMP found two Sri Lankan nationals in Rasiah's home, along with over $380,000 Cdn worth of cash in different currencies and three cellphones. Information extracted from cellphones seized at Rasiah's home suggested the organization "had a much broader reach than originally anticipated," according to the RCMP summary of evidence report. This larger network allegedly helped Rasiah to "transport individuals across multiple international borders with unimaginable efficiency," said the report. Rasiah was charged in May 2024 with multiple human smuggling-related charges. He remains in custody awaiting trial. Rasiah's Ottawa lawyer James Harbic declined comment. Rasiah faces no charges related to passport forgery. Investigators with Project O-ctopus pulled videos and photos from cellphones found in Rasiah's home depicting two forged Canadian passports, a pile of forged blank Canadian temporary visitor visas and counterfeit visas from several European Union countries. Police found videos and images on one cellphone from someone who identified himself in messages as "Faiz from Dubai" and used a phone number with a country code from the United Arab Emirates, according to the report summarizing the investigation and a separate RCMP analysis of the cellphone. Forged documents 'incredibly impressive' One of the videos, which runs for one minute and 39 seconds, is set to an electronic beat by Turkish DJ Kantik and shows a forged Canadian passport mimicking the main security features from the generation of Canadian travel documents issued between 2013 and early 2023. Gloved hands bend and leaf through the document to show it matches the stiffness and thickness of the materials used in the real thing, according to the video, obtained by CBC News. The video then shows the passport emulating security features triggered by ultra violet light Finally, the passport is scanned over a cellphone that flashed identity information on the screen matching what's on the printed document, including the photo. The federal government issued passports with electronic chips containing identity information for the first time in 2013. CBC News showed this video to Kelly Sundberg, a former Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officer and now criminology professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary. "I've handled tens of thousands of passports in my years. I've seen hundreds of fraudulent documents over my years and this is incredibly impressive," said Sundberg. Project O-ctopus shared the identity information in the forged document with CBSA. The border authority said the document contained a real Canadian passport number, but it belonged to a different person — not the individual identified in the video, according to the Project O-ctopus report. CBSA said the individual identified in the forged document entered Canada in October 2023 on a Nigerian passport, according to records. The photo on the Nigerian passport matched the photo used in the forged document. Sundberg has long said Canada's passport system is the weak link in the country's national security chain. He has called for CBSA to take over the issuing of the travel document instead of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. He says Canada's passports should include biometric identifiers, like fingerprints and retinal scans, to protect them from sophisticated counterfeiters. "You don't let someone at a kiosk in a mall take your photo. You have a sworn peace officer taking your photo, your fingerprints, using government equipment," he said. "We need to take document security seriously." In an emailed statement, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the federal department responsible for passports, said it could not speak to specific cases. The statement said security features added to new Canadian passports, unveiled in 2023, make the document "one of the most secure" in the world. 'Insiders' in embassies But police suspected the network may have done more than just traffic in forged documents, according to the report. A voice message extracted from one of the phones in Rasiah's home was sent by "Faiz from Dubai" also suggested this network could move people through Istanbul International Airport around gates that used passport scanners. "We will check the gate, if that machine in the gate, we will try change the next day the flight. But if there's not any … machine, it can go easier," said the voice message. One contact, who appeared to have helped move two Sri Lankan nationals through Nigeria on a journey with apparent stops in Dubai, Istanbul, Brazil, Panama and the Bahamas, claimed he was in the midst of helping 35 people get into Canada. The contact, using the alias Kampeya Sederd and a phone number with a Gambian country code, said they had "visa approval insiders" in Canadian, U.S., French and Mexican embassies. The contact also said that for $1,000 they could provide "airport clearance" for Cuba. Another contact used a WhatsApp profile with the alias "Shakeel Consultantt, Travel & Transportation." Investigators believed this contact was based in Dubai and appears to have helped arrange a flight from Dubai to Brazil for the two Sri Lankan nationals that were also aided by contact Kampeya Sederd. At one point, "Consultantt" allegedly claimed they were "with Guinea-Bissau Ambassador." Investigators said this message, if true, suggested that the contact "has strong political ties." Police also found what appeared to be a May 2023 message to Consultantt with the image of an EasyPay money transfer service receipt with Rasiah's name for $1.03 million AED (United Arab Emirates Dirham), which was equivalent to about $377,000 Cdn at the time, according to the investigative summary. Sundberg said he understood why RCMP investigators concluded, based on the totality of these elements, that this suspected network created a national security concern. "When we look at the notes from the officers that intercepted this, it's absolutely clear that they understand the urgency, the magnitude and the threat it poses," he said.
CBC
07-03-2025
- CBC
U.S. guilty plea for woman caught on video with Romanian-Canadian family who died on smuggling run
A woman captured on the parking lot camera of the Super 8 motel in Cornwall, Ont., picking up a Romanian-Canadian family days before their deaths on a human smuggling run pleaded guilty Thursday before a U.S. Federal Court to five counts of alien smuggling. Janet Terrance admitted to picking up the four members of the Iordache family on March 27, 2023, at the Super 8 and then driving them to a house on Cornwall Island, which sits across the St. Lawrence River from Cornwall. The family waited for a boat that never showed up, according to the plea agreement filed with the U.S. Federal Court for the Northern District of New York. Terrance is one of four people named in a nine count indictment filed as a result of a U.S. Homeland Security Investigations probe into the deaths of nine people — including the Iordache family — who drowned after their boat capsized on the St. Lawrence River during a U.S.-bound human smuggling run on March 29, 2023. One of her co-accused, Dakota Montour, has already pleaded guilty. The other two, Stephanie Square and Rahsontanohstha Delormier, are now facing extradition to the U.S. following a ruling Thursday morning in Quebec Superior Court. They were part of a small group of people in Akwesasne — an Indigenous community severed by the Canada-U.S. border about 120 kilometres west of Montreal — working for a human smuggling network run out of Montreal. Romanian citizens Florian Iordache, Cristina Iordache and their two Canadian-born children, Evelin, 2, and Elyen, 16 months, were facing deportation. They paid about $15,000 to a human smuggling network to get smuggled into the U.S., according to court records filed in Canadian court. They shared the boat on the fatal voyage with a family of four from India, father Pravindbhai Chaudhari, mother Dakshaben, and their two adult children, son Mitkumar and daughter Vidhiben. The Chaudhari family paid $100,000 to the same network to be smuggled into the U.S., according to police and court records in Canada and India. A months-long investigation led by the RCMP found that the human smuggling network was headed by a Montreal man named Thesingarasan Rasiah, who is now in custody and facing multiple human smuggling charges. Many of the details in Terrance's plea agreement dovetail with evidence gathered by the RCMP, according to court records filed in Ontario. Terrance's plea agreement is also linked to a separate guilty plea filed in U.S. Federal Court last October by Kawisiiostha Sharrow, also known as 'Kawi' or Cecilia. Sharrow said the Iordache family was "among the aliens [she] agreed to smuggle" for $2,500 in March 2023. She twice tried and failed to move the family across the river, according to Sharrow's plea agreement. Sharrow paid Terrance $500 to pick up the Iordache family on March 27. Sharrow sent them back to Cornwall later that night by taxi after the boat failed to show, according to the document. The next night, March 28, 2023, the Iordache family "refused to cross the St. Lawrence River because of inclement weather." Sharrow agreed it was too rough, with "high winds, waves and darkness," said the plea agreement.
CBC
06-03-2025
- CBC
Quebec judge rules 2 should face U.S. extradition in human smuggling river deaths
A Quebec Superior Court judge ruled two people from Akwesasne should face extradition to the U.S., where they face charges related to a human smuggling run across the St. Lawrence River that ended in the drowning deaths of nine people on March 29, 2023. Justice Gregory Moore said the federal Crown presented enough evidence to meet the low evidentiary standard for this stage of the extradition process. "This is a very limited role and intended only to decide as to whether there is a prima facie case, whether a … crime has been committed," said Moore. "The extradition judge did not hear a trial, and the process before the judge is intended to be expeditious, [deciding] only whether a trial should be held." The federal justice minister will make the final determination on the extradition. Stephanie Square and Rahsontanohstha Delormier are both wanted into the U.S. to face an indictment filed with the U.S. Federal Court for the Northern District of New York in connection with the drowning deaths of a family of four from India and a Romanian-Canadian family of four with two young children. While the alleged roles of Square and Delormier in the tragedy are very different, their cases were heard together during this phase of the extradition process. Romanian citizens Florian Iordache, Cristina Iordache and their two Canadian-born children, Evelin, 2, and Elyen, 16 months, drowned on March 29, 2023, when the boat they travelled in capsized in stormy weather on the St. Lawrence River. They shared the boat with a family of four from India, father Pravindbhai Chaudhari, mother Dakshaben Chaudhari, and their two adult children, son Mitkumar and daughter Vidhiben. The boat launched from Cornwall Island headed for the southern banks of the St. Lawrence, but never made it. The bodies of the two families were pulled from the river between March 30 and 31. The body of Casey Oakes, the Akwesasne resident who was at the boat's tiller, was found in July. Akwesanse is a Haudenensaunee community that is severed by the Canada-U.S. border. It sits about 120 kilometres west of Montreal and its territory is split between Ontario, Quebec and New York State. The Chaudhari family, in Canada on visitors visas, paid $100,000, and the Iordaches, facing deportation, paid about $15,000 to a human smuggling network allegedly led by a Montreal man named Thesingarasan Rasiah. Both families wanted to enter the U.S. The RCMP charged Rasiah, who is in custody, with numerous human smuggling related charges in June 2024. Case goes to minister This case now goes before the federal justice minister to determine whether they should be surrendered to the U.S. Square and Delormier have 30 days to file for an interim release and an appeal. They can also make submissions to the minister. The minister's extradition decision can also be challenged at the appeal court and Supreme Court of Canada level. Square's Montreal lawyer Joel Girard said they would be appealing to the federal justice minister directly, via a letter, that he should reject the extradition request. Girard questions whether the U.S. has any jurisdiction to pursue criminal charges over the fatalities on the river because they occurred within Canadian territory. "An alleged crime committed in Canada should be prosecuted in Canada," said Girard. Delormier's Montreal lawyer Antonio Cabral said he planned to apply for an interim release for Delormier. Cabral said he also plans to appeal Moore's decision and seek a Gladue report for Delormier. Girard said he would also be seeking to send a Gladue report for Square to the minister. Gladue reports are basically like pre-sentence reports that include the historical impact of dispossession and colonialism on the life of Indigenous offenders. However, there is case law on the use of Gladue reports in the extradition process. Cabral said he planned to fight Delormier's extradition "with all of my power and energy." Square faces eight counts in the indictment, including alien smuggling, conspiracy to commit alien smuggling,alien smuggling for profit and four counts of alien smuggling causing death for each of the Romanian-Canadian families who died. Delormier faces five counts, including conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, alien smuggling and alien smuggling for profit. Much of the U.S. case against Delormier and Square is based on evidence gathered by Canadian authorities, according to the publicly available record. Square was the alleged organizer of the run who allegedly hired Casey Oakes to take the two families across the river. Delormier was found on an island during the day of March 30 on the verge of hypothermia. The extradition file alleges he was piloting a boat bought by Square that broke down on the way to Cornwall Island where the families waited to be smuggled.
