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Columbian citizen sentenced for transporting Mexicans in U.S. illegally in Akwesasne

Posted 8/7/17

A Columbian citizen has been sentenced to time served and will be removed from the country after pleading to transporting two Mexicans who had illegally entered the United States, according to Acting …

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Columbian citizen sentenced for transporting Mexicans in U.S. illegally in Akwesasne

Posted

A Columbian citizen has been sentenced to time served and will be removed from the country after pleading to transporting two Mexicans who had illegally entered the United States, according to Acting United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith.

Brayan Granados-Betancourt, 24, and a citizen of Colombia, was sentenced on Aug. 4 to time served (29 days in jail) for transporting two Mexican citizens who had illegally entered the United States from Canada.

As part of his guilty plea, Granados-Betancourt admitted that on July 7, he drove a rental car to the Akwesasne reservation in Hogansburg where he picked up the two Mexican citizens and drove them to Ellenburg. Acting on a civilian tip, U.S. Border Patrol stopped the car and arrested the three men, Jaquith said.

The Mexican citizens, who crossed from Canada into the United States by boat, were Granados-Betancourt’s acquaintances and he agreed to bring them to New York City. The Mexican citizens, Marcelo Chavez-Vera and Carlos Olivar-Varon, were each convicted on July 20 of illegal entry, a misdemeanor, Jaquith said.

Granados-Betancourt was in the United States on a visitor’s visa. Following his sentencing, he was remanded to the Department of Homeland Security for removal proceedings, Jaquith said.

This case was investigated by the United States Border Patrol and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Collyer.