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U.S. authorities on Sunday arrested the brother of the boat pilot who drowned along with eight members of two families during a March 2023 human smuggling run across the St. Lawrence River.
Timothy Oakes, the brother of Casey Oakes, is facing charges related to alien smuggling resulting in death and alien smuggling for financial gain, according to Michael Barnett, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York.
The indictment will be unsealed during his arraignment, said Barnett.
Timothy — from Akwesasne, a Haudenosaunee territory that straddles the Canada-U.S. border, 120 kilometres west of Montreal — is scheduled to appear Tuesday morning before the U.S. Federal Court for the Northern District of New York. He was arrested by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents at the U.S. port of entry in Massena, N.Y., on Sunday as he was crossing with family to attend a Father’s Day gathering.
His brother’s body was found on July 3, 2023, three months after the boat he was piloting capsized in stormy waters on the evening of March 29, 2023. Four members of a Romanian family — with two Canadian-born toddlers — and four members of an Indian family also drowned.
Both families wanted to be smuggled into the U.S. and had paid a human smuggling organization allegedly led by a Sri Lankan-Canadian man living in Montreal named Thesingarasan Rasiah.
Rasiah is facing multiple smuggling-related charges in Canada. He has pleaded not guilty.
It’s unclear what evidence HSI has beyond what is publicly available in records filed with Quebec Superior Court as part of related extradition proceedings against two other people from Akwesasne, including the alleged organizer, Stephanie Square.
A Quebec judge has already signed off on the extradition of Square and Rahsontanohstha Delormier to the U.S., where they have been indicted in connection with the deaths on the St. Lawrence. The matter is currently before Justice Minister Sean Fraser.
Square allegedly pressured Timothy, through an intermediary, to get Casey to pilot the two families across the river, according to the extradition file.
The Quebec filing alleges that the Romanian family — Florin Iordache, Christina Zenaida Iordache and their children Evelin and Elyen, aged two and 16 months, respectively — stayed at Timothy’s residence on Cornwall Island in Akwesasne in the hours before the fatal attempted crossing.
Timothy also allegedly told Akwesasne Mohawk Police — which patrols the Canadian side of the territory — that he towed the boat used by Casey to a launch shortly before his brother cast off with the two families, according to the Quebec filing.
U.S. authorities have already obtained guilty pleas from three other Akwesasne residents in relation to the human smuggling deaths on the St. Lawrence River.