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 Department of Justice, Assistant U.S. Attorney Franz M. Wright said that in May 2019, Edwin Ramirez-Cordonez, 46, also known as “El Fuerte,” launched a boat in Ontario’s river country with two persons on board whom he “knew were not citizens or nationals of the United States.”
Officials said Ramirez-Cordonez navigated the boat across a stretch of river to Lewiston, N.Y., even though he knew the dock he arrived at was not a designated port of entry.
The river, which flows between Canada and the United States from Niagara on the Lake in the north and Fort Erie in the south, is less than 500 meters wide in some places.
After Ramirez-Cordonez dropped off the two passengers in Lewiston, he returned to Ontario and was to be paid $8,500, according to the Buffalo court.
After an investigation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Ramirez-Cordonez pleaded guilty to “bringing an alien into 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 $250,000 fine US dollars.
Ramirez-Cordonez is scheduled to be sentenced on May 19.
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