Human smuggler pleads guilty after multiple law enforcement stops near Canadian border

The U.S. Department of Justice is seen on June 20, 2023, in Washington, DC. Photo by Kevin Dietsch /Getty Images

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A New York woman has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court for her role in smuggling illegals across the border from Canada multiple times, even after having been arrested for doing so.

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According to court documents, Stacey Taylor, 43, of Plattsburgh, N.Y., was involved in a failed human smuggling event in January 2025 involving immigrants from India and Canada brought illegally into the United States.

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U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped the suspect’s vehicle near Churubusco, N.Y., in the early morning hours of Jan. 20, 2025, and discovered four men inside. Churubusco is a hamlet within the town of Clinton, N.Y., and is just five kilometres from the border with Quebec.

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Agents determined the four men, three from India and one from Canada, were illegal immigrants and had just crossed the border illegally, without inspection, in the freezing cold.

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“When law enforcement later examined the defendant’s cellphone, they learned that Taylor had received coordinates for the aliens’ location and instructions for picking them up,” the Department said in a press release. “The four aliens illegally entered the United States by foot through a wooded area and got into Taylor’s waiting vehicle, and she then drove them away from the border and further into the interior United States.”

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Churubusco, N.Y., is just five kilometres from the border with Quebec. Photo by Google Maps

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While stopped, Taylor admitted to law enforcement that she had picked up the four men and expected to receive payment for doing so. “Additional review of Taylor’s phone revealed text messages that indicated that she had been involved in multiple other human smuggling events in the days prior,” authorities noted.

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Following that arrest, Taylor was subsequently stopped in a suspected human smuggling venture the following August, and was again implicated in human smuggling in September.

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Taylor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in alien smuggling and four counts of alien smuggling for profit. She is scheduled to be sentenced in December, and faces a statutory minimum penalty of five years in prison. The case remains under investigation.

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The investigation and indictment were supported by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), the Department of Justice’s lead effort in fighting human smuggling and trafficking. To date, JTFA says it has resulted in more than 477 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers and facilitators of human smuggling, more than 431 U.S. convictions, and more than 370 significant jail sentences imposed, and forfeitures of substantial assets.

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