Canadian sentenced to nine months for smuggling immigrants into the U.S.

ALBANY, N.Y. – Two men have been sentenced for separately smuggling a total of eight immigrants across the Canadian border into northern New York.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albany says 29-year-old Christopher Square of Kahnawake (kah-nah-WAH’-kee), Que., was sentenced to nine months in prison.

Prosecutors say Square, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, was caught smuggling three people in a van that was stopped by U.S. Border Patrol officers near Fort Covington, N.Y., last May.

Authorities say 30-year-old Daniel Humberto Pulido-Mojica was sentenced to 11 months in prison.

A citizen of Columbia who was living in Queens, he was stopped in June while driving a van that was transporting five people who had just entered the U.S. illegally near Champlain, N.Y.

Both men pleaded guilty in August to human smuggling-related charges and were sentenced Friday.