Prosecutors have charged the leader of an international human smuggling ring who conspired to illegally bring dozens of migrants across the northern border to New York City and other locations in the US, according to unsealed court filings.
Francisco Antonio Luna Rosado, a 27-year-old migrant from the Dominican Republic, ran a roughly 70-member trafficking group that sought to bring at least 48 illegal immigrants — including young children — from Central and South America from Canada into northern Vermont, the filings stated.
From there, filings in Vermont district court Wednesday also alleged, Jesus Hernandez Ortiz, 37, of Puerto Rico and other members in 70-person encrypted chat messaging platform would drive to pick up the migrants to “New York City and beyond.”
The migrants were flown into southern Canada before linking up with Luna Rosado using cellular location data on the messaging app.
Ortiz on Sept. 17 of that year was stopped by law enforcement while transporting the dozen illegal immigrants south from the northern border in the back of a Home Depot van at 4 a.m.
There were two children in the group including a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old.
Ortiz told officers “he had picked these people up in a Canadian field and that he did not know who they were,” per the latest court filing.
The proceeds, which topped $10,000, were purportedly laundered by Luna Rosado as part of the operation that stretched from August 2022 to March 2024 — leading to two additional charges.
Between 2024 and 2025, the 300-mile sector of border separating Vermont and Canada saw a 95% drop in illegal crossings. More than 1,100 were apprehended in March 2024, compared with just 54 one year later. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Tia Dufour / DHS / Public Domain |
Ongoing smuggling operations continue at the U.S.-Canada border. After alleged offenders are arrested and charged by federal immigration officers, they are being indicted and prosecuted.
Ongoing border crimes are being committed in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Swanton Sector, which reported a record number of illegal border crossers during the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported. The sector includes all of Vermont, six upstate New York counties, and three New Hampshire counties.
Under the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents continue to arrest Mexican smugglers operating in Canada, Iranians, weapons smugglers and human smugglers using an Indian reservation. In recent years, the greatest number of illegal border crossings reported at the U.S.-Canada border were in upstate New York, Washington and Vermont, The Center Square reported.
In Vermont, an indictment was unsealed charging two men, Francisco Antonio Luna Rosado, 27, a Dominican national in the country illegally, and Jesus Hernandez Ortiz, 37, a Puerto Rican, with conspiring to smuggle foreign nationals from Mexico and Central and South America into the U.S. from Canada for profit. Luna Rosado was also charged with money laundering involving property derived from smuggling activities.
The smuggling operation involved flying foreign nationals to Canada then guiding them with GPS coordinates on cell phones through a remote area of Canada into northern Vermont, authorities allege. From there, Luna Rosado used a 70-person encrypted chat platform to communicate arranging drivers to pick up illegal border crossers, authorities allege. The drivers then transported them in rented Home Depot vans driving them a few hours from Vermont to New York City, according to the charges.
Swanton Sector Border Patrol Intelligence Unit agents working out of the Newport station and with Homeland Security Investigations officers led the investigation. HSI’s Human Smuggling Unit in Washington, D.C. and CBP’s National Targeting Center International Interdiction Task Force also assisted with the case. It’s being prosecuted in the District of Vermont. --->READ MORE HERE
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