Woman pleads guilty to human smuggling after migrants drown in St. Lawrence River
Posted July 23, 2026 5:24 pm.
Last Updated July 23, 2026 5:28 pm.
Another person has pleaded guilty in a human smuggling case that involved the drowning of nine people in the St. Lawrence River as they tried crossing into the United States.
Two families from Romania and India, along with the man allegedly piloting their vessel, died in March 2023 after they capsized while trying to enter the United States via Akwesasne Mohawk Territory.
The U.S. Department of Justice says Stephanie Square has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, four counts of alien smuggling for financial gain and four counts of alien smuggling resulting in death.
Officials say Square was the U.S.-based leader of a group that regularly smuggled people across the border via the Mohawk territory, which straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York state.
Square’s charges only involved the deaths of the Romanian family, which included two children under the age of three.
Five other people previously pleaded guilty in the case.
