U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a suspected smuggler on Wednesday, Sept. 9, after agents from the Grand Marais Station, Grand Forks Sector, were contacted by the Grand Portage Pigeon River Port of Entry concerning several suspicious persons exiting a vehicle near the Grand Portage State Park.
The agents responded to the area and encountered the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle was a fugitive illegal alien from El Salvador who had in the meantime apparently transported and dropped off four other suspected illegal aliens near the Canadian border.
He was taken into custody and the information concerning the four suspected illegal aliens was relayed to Canadian authorities. Canadian Police officials were able to locate and apprehend the four people in question who had illegally crossed into Canada. The four people apprehended in Canada were determined to be from Mexico and Honduras.
CBP spokesman Bryce Koether said deportation of the driver is likely, but added that it is not yet known if additional criminal charges of smuggling will be filed.
This incident exhibits the importance of cross agency cooperation in order to effectively secure our nation’s borders. Customs and Border Protection works very closely with its Canadian counterparts through a program known as Integrated Border Enforcement Team (IBET). This program has proven itself invaluable to the sharing of intelligence and coordination of law enforcement activity.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation’s borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.
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