Human smuggling attempt thwarted in Fort Erie, Ont., near U.S. border: authorities

Canadian authorities say they’ve intercepted a human smuggling attempt in Ontario’s Niagara region as part of a larger border security effort.

The Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP say they caught one person jumping off a moving freight train as it entered Canada in Fort Erie, Ont.

They say the intercept was part of Project Disrupt and Deter, launched in December and aimed at monitoring “vulnerable” areas along the International Railway Bridge that connects Fort Erie and Buffalo, N.Y.

Authorities say the person who jumped off the freight train was arrested, ultimately found inadmissible to Canada and returned to the United States, while two other people allegedly involved in the smuggling attempt were taken in for questioning.

Public Safety Minister David McGuinty says in a news release that “Canada’s border plan is working” and that CBSA and RCMP’s joint efforts are deterring criminal activities along the Canada-U.S. border.

The federal government promised last month to spend $1.3 billion over six years to beef up border security, amid threats from U.S. President Donald Trump to impose hefty tariffs if Canada doesn’t address the perception that migrants and fentanyl are flooding across the border into the United States.

The CBSA says Niagara’s Project Disrupt and Deter is part of a larger intelligence and enforcement strategy called Project Northstar, which tracks “any increases in irregular northbound movements.”

It says those projects and the renewed border security plan enable “the targeting and disruption of organized crime groups facilitating illegal border crossing.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2025.

The Canadian Press