An Ontario man has pleaded guilty to transporting two people across the Niagara River into the United States nearly four years ago.
In a news release issued by the Justice Department, Assistant U.S. Attorney Franz M. Wright said that in May 2019, Edwin Ramirez-Cordones, 46, also known as “El Fuerte,” launched a boat into the Ontario side of the river with two individuals on board that he “knew were not citizens or nationals of the United States.”
Officials said Ramirez-Cordones navigated the boat across a stretch of river into Lewiston, NY although he knew the dock he arrived at was not a designated port of entry.
The river, which runs between Canada and the U.S. from Niagara-on-the-Lake in the north and Fort Erie in the south, measures less than 500 metres wide in some places.
After Ramirez-Cordones dropped off the two passengers in Lewiston, he returned to Ontario and was to be paid US $ 8,500, according to a Buffalo court.
Following an investigation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Ramirez-Cordones pleaded guilty to “bringing an alien to the United States at a place other than a designated port of entry,” which officials said carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of US$250,000.
Ramirez-Cordones is set to be sentenced on May 19.
