Man arrested for allegedly helping smuggle 7 foreign nationals over Canada-U.S. border into Manitoba

A Calgary man has been arrested after police allege he helped smuggle seven foreign nationals across the Canadian border and into Manitoba illegally last month.

Saleh Youssouf, 49, was charged under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act after RCMP allege he was found driving a rented vehicle carrying seven men just north of the Canada-United States border on Jan. 27.

The men in the vehicle, who ranged in age from 27 to 49, were from Chad in north-central Africa, RCMP said in a news release on Tuesday.

The vehicle was pulled over by the Manitoba RCMP Integrated Border Enforcement Team at the intersection of provincial roads 200 and 201 near Dominion City, Man., after Mounties said they got a tip from the United States Border Patrol about a group of people walking north along a rail line toward the Canadian border near Emerson, Man., around 3:45 a.m. that morning.

The group appeared to be wearing proper winter clothing, and were likely to cross into Canada within the hour, RCMP said.

The men in the vehicle were arrested under the Customs Act and turned over to Canada Border Services Agency immigration officers at the Emerson port of entry, Mounties said.

Youssouf was remanded into custody and appeared in court in Winnipeg on Jan. 29.

RCMP said they and the Canada Border Services agency are investigating.

The incident comes less than two months after another group of men from Chad were found in Emerson after illegally crossing into Manitoba. One was sent to hospital with serious weather-related injuries.

In January 2022, a family of four from India parents and two children died while trying to cross the border into the U.S. near Emerson.

While border officials in the U.S. have reported a sharp rise in unauthorized crossings from Manitoba to North Dakota, RCMP said the same has not been seen recently for those going north.