Royal Canadian Mounted Police have charged a Barrie man with conspiracy after he allegedly tried to smuggle people across the United States border from Quebec last April.
Kamalanathan Kathapillai, 61, has been charged with conspiracy to commit an offence in the United States, under section 465 of the Criminal Code, according to the RCMP.
Following an investigation conducted by the Valleyfield RCMP detachment, police say Kathapillai conspired to transport a group of four people to an "unguarded location" along the Canada-U.S. border on April 25, 2024.
The RCMP says he was arrested that same day in his vehicle in Dundee, Que., in the Montérégie region near New York state, about 90 minutes southwest of Montreal.
During the "interception," the RCMP says officers also seized $1,100 (Cdn.), $1,100 (US) and the accused's vehicle as offence-related property.
Kathapillai is scheduled to appear at the Valleyfield courthouse on March 10.
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
"Human smuggling is a criminal enterprise that spans the globe," the RCMP stated in a news release. "Smugglers facilitate the entry of people into Canada or the United States by illegal means, while making a profit from them.
"By charging their passengers large sums of money to transport them, human smugglers have turned illegal migration into a lucrative business," say police.
