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Four
Guyanese Arrested in Visa Scam |
September 2001: Amid mounting fears that large numbers of illegals continue to make their way into the U.S. from Toronto, the RCMP claims it smashed a human smuggling ring last week that was funnelling people to New York City.
Police insist the operation is not connected to the terrorist attacks there.
But court affidavits reveal in troubling detail just how easy illegal entry into the U.S. from Canada has become.
They also underline how Toronto has emerged as a staging ground and convenient conduit for illegal entry into the U.S.
Investigators claimed the alleged ring transported at least 100 people from Toronto to New York in the past year - possibly hundreds since it began in 1997.
"They've operated since then,'' lead RCMP investigator Inspector Steve Martin said yesterday. "Draw your own conclusions.''
The affidavits, rich in detail, contain unproven allegations and were filed in support of applications for search warrants used in raids Thursday.
The affidavits claim that nationals of Pakistan, India and Caribbean countries used a route that began in Guyana, passed through Toronto's Pearson International Airport, then continued by transport truck across the Niagara peninsula into New York state.
On September 28, four Toronto-area residents were led into a Brampton court in handcuffs and charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. immigration laws.
They are: Chandrica Gurprasad, 42, his wife Nalinee Samaroo, 33, Dasrath Balchand, 59 and Roy Morris, 51.
Three were released on bail ranging from $20,000 to $50,000.
Gurprasad was held without bail.
All were required to surrender their passports and any travel documents within 48 hours.
The affidavits say police and immigration authorities placed the alleged smuggling operation under surveillance 10 months ago.
Documents also claim investigators witnessed their last human haul on Sept. 10 - the day before the U.S. terror tragedy.
But the RCMP's Martin stressed the alleged smuggling operation had no connection to the terrorist attacks in the United States.
"No way whatsoever,'' he said. "There's absolutely no connection to the World Trade Center.''
Outside court yesterday, crown prosecutor Hugh Connelly said the alleged ring "as far as I know'' has no links to the Sept. 11 attacks on the trade center and the Pentagon.
Inside the court, he'd explained that Nalinee Samaroo, Gurprasad's wife, allegedly handled all the documents and all the money for the illegals arriving in Canada.
Court also heard that she and Gurprasad jointly own a well-appointed, mortgage-free Toronto condominium in Etobicoke with a six-figure value. According to affidavits, Gurprasad also owns a unit in an Islington Ave. building. The other two charged, Balchand and Morris, are truck drivers.
The affidavits accompanying the warrants describe a highly organized and lucrative operation and claim Gurprasad's local real estate office was really a cover.
The affidavits claimed the illegals, who would usually cross in groups of eight to 10, were charged $13,000 (U.S.) each to come from Guyana to New York via Toronto.
Other apparent illegals, already residing in Toronto for some time but determined to enter the U.S., were charged a lesser amount, the documents claim.
The papers also claim the illegals were instructed to destroy their passports en route by flushing them down in-flight toilets and, upon arrival at Pearson, to apply for refugee status.
Investigators hoped to find lots of evidence in the raids to support their allegations.
Warrants show the RCMP searched four residences and a vehicle on September 27, pointedly looking for passports, immigration landing forms, citizenship cards, refugee forms, travel records and cash. They were guarded about what they found but did reveal that Balchand's Mississauga home on Roselair Trail, contained $40,000 in American funds.
The raids came just days before wide-ranging changes concerning entry into Canada are expected to be announced by Ottawa.
The alleged key tactic to entry, however, was the disposing of identity documents while in flight: a troubling but shrewd practice for desperate immigrants, says Wesley Wark, an international relations professor at the University of Toronto. He suggested such methods, if proven, take full advantage of Canada's traditional sympathies for refugees."Better to arrive with no documentation than with bad documentation,'' he said.If travel documents are proven false, passengers can be sent back to their point of origin immediately. But if they arrive with no documentation, Wark observed, ``end of story.'' Authorities are left to piece together the refugee's story with scant evidence.Under a 1951 United Nations convention, people can claim they have well-founded fears of persecution in their home country, and with no supporting documentation, leave authorities in a very tough position."It's very difficult to prove in immigration courts and tribunals that their story is necessarily false,'' said Wark.However, once in Toronto and having pleaded refugee status, the affidavits claim the new arrivals are then taken by the smugglers to ``safe houses,'' where they are sometimes cloistered until they pay their fees.Typically, it is claimed, the illegals were hidden in the sleeping compartments of large transport trucks."This was a Guyanese-based organization that trans-shipped people through the Caribbean and Canada and into the United States,'' Martin said. ``These are international organized criminals that have demonstrated themselves to be solely motivated for profit.''The RCMP are today sifting through bank records, phone bills, e-mails, airline tickets and the contents of safes from four different addresses.The affidavits claim the smuggling world involves both government corruption as well as violence.For example, Samaroo, Gurprasad's wife, is quoted as saying she had a Guyanese customs agent "in her back pocket.''
(Toronto Star)