N.B. man fined after Ecuadorean woman caught crossing U.S. border on paddle boat

EDMUNDSTON, N.B. – A New Brunswick man has admitted conspiring to smuggle a 46-year-old Ecuadorean woman into the U.S. on a paddle boat.

RCMP say the woman entered Maine illegally via the Saint John River in July of last year, and was apprehended by American authorities soon after.

“The U.S. authorities were alerted by somebody on the U.S. side — they saw the woman,” Cpl. Jullie Rogers-Marsh said Friday.

The woman entered the river in the New Brunswick border town of Baker Brook, and was arrested in Van Buren, Me. She remains in the United States.

Richard Cyr, a 50-year-old man from Baker Brook, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit human smuggling in Edmundston, N.B., provincial court.

He was fined $4,000 plus a $1,200 surcharge.

Prosecutors withdrew charges against a 67-year-old man from Edmundston who had also been arrested in the incident.