'The real cost is your life': U.S. Border Patrol Agent warns of risks in trusting human smugglers
A U.S. border patrol agent says a group of people from India attempting to cross the Canada-U.S. border faced blizzard conditions and freezing temperatures during an 11-hour-long trek that left four people dead.
He says human smugglers are taking advantage of people and is urging anyone thinking of attempting the journey to consider the risks to themselves and their families.
Chief Patrol Agent Anthony S. Good with the United States Border Patrol is responsible for 861 miles along the Canada-U.S. border – from the Montana line in North Dakota, all the way to Wisconsin.
It is a stretch of land where a group of people attempted to illegally cross the border last week. Good said it was one of his border patrol agents who found Steve Shand with two people in his vehicle that had illegally crossed the border.
Shand, a 47-year-old man from Florida, was arrested and is facing human smuggling charges. The charges have not been proven in court.
"Based on the conditions (the agent) went ahead and called some other agents out and searched the area for additional people and found five more people," Good told CTV News, adding one of the people in the group had clothes for a toddler, but there was not a toddler in the group.
"We immediately began searching some more and called our partners on the Canadian side, RCMP, to help us out. They already had patrols in their area around that area. So they began searching immediately."
Good said the U.S. border patrol called in air support to help with the search.
Manitoba RCMP says officers found the frozen bodies of four people including a baby and a teenage boy metres from the Canada-U.S. border.
Good said two of the surviving members of the group had hypothermia with one needing to be taken to hospital by helicopter. Court documents say one woman who had attempted to cross will likely require partial amputation of one hand due to exposure
Good refers to those who survived the attempted crossing as ‘victims.’
"It's the smugglers that are taking advantage of these people," Good told CTV News.
He said this was 'incredibly apparent' for the group of people from India who were walking across the border in a snowstorm.
"It was literally a blizzard, blowing winds, wind chill factor -29 F, frostbite within minutes in those kinds of conditions and they were out there for 11 hours," he said.
"(It is) very clear that smugglers do not care about human life. They only care about that money at the end of the journey."
He said there have been other illegal crossings at this section of the border before. He said border patrol agents have found belongings that were left behind by those entering the country.
Court documents suggest the location is a high incident area for human smuggling, highlighting three separate incidents of human smuggling at the same location of Shand's arrest.
Good is urging anyone thinking of illegally crossing the border to reconsider.
"Don’t do it. That is our message. Don't do it," he said.
"If you're trusting a smuggler, the smuggler only cares about the money and the real cost is your life – it's your life and the life of your loved ones and the people that you care about. It's just not worth it."
-with files from CTV's Jill Macyshon
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.