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A Somali national living in Winnipeg has been charged with human smuggling after a vehicle with eight foreign nationals inside was stopped near the Gretna border crossing last month.
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The 35-year-old driver was charged under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. He was released with several conditions and has an Oct. 16 court date in Emerson.
Seven passengers — four men and a woman from Chad, two men from Sudan and a woman from Guinea ranging in age from 19 to 48 — were arrested under the Customs Act and turned over to Canada Border Services Agency for processing, Manitoba RCMP said Monday.
The RCMP’s integrated border enforcement team, working with counterparts from the U.S. Border Patrol, was told about people crossing into Canada at about 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 22. Officers saw a lone driver in a rental vehicle pick up seven people walking into Canada west of Gretna, RCMP said.
Sgt. Lance Goldau, head of the enforcement team in Manitoba, said police were able to interview all eight people with help from officers who speak Arabic and French.
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