Last week, Simranjit “Shally” Singh, a Brampton resident, confessed to human smuggling charges in a New York court after bragging about illicitly transporting over 1,000 individuals across the Canada-U.S. border. He was extradited to the United States in April, accused of being the central figure in a network engaged in smuggling migrants across the St. Lawrence River into the states, as stated by U.S. authorities.
The Indian national, with ties to Brampton, had openly boasted about facilitating the illegal crossing of more than 1,000 people into the U.S. Subsequently, in June, U.S. prosecutors filed an indictment against him, detailing six instances of ferrying individuals across the border during three separate trips.
On Friday (July 28), Singh pleaded guilty to six counts of alien smuggling and three counts of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling. He acknowledged being part of a network that smuggled Indian nationals from Cornwall Island on the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence River to the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian reservation, operating from at least March 2020 through March 2021, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Court documents revealed that one migrant apprehended by U.S. authorities disclosed paying Singh a substantial sum of $35,000 to facilitate the border crossing. Other individuals, as noted by the U.S. authorities, paid up to $14,000 for the same illicit service.
It is important to clarify that this case is unrelated to the tragic incident in April, where eight people, including four Indian nationals, lost their lives while attempting to illegally cross into the United States from Canada through Akwesasne, about 130 kilometers southwest of Montreal.
Sentencing for Singh is scheduled for December 28, and he faces a minimum prison term of five years, with a maximum of 15 years, in addition to a fine of up to $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release. Furthermore, upon serving his sentence, Singh will be subject to deportation.