Plea deal in U.S. reveals how migrants were smuggled across B.C. border in freight trains

At the same time as U.S. president-elect Donald Trump accuses Canada of failing to secure its border with the United States, an Oregon resident has pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport dozens of undocumented migrants smuggled across the B.C. border by foot and freight train.

According to documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Jesus Ortiz-Plata signed a plea deal admitting to helping at least 25 people stay in Washington state illegally, in exchange for a sentence of up to 18 months in jail.

The charges relate to seven separate cross-border smuggling cases — including two where dozens of people were found hiding in rail cars among items like bulk plastic pellets.

The case highlights the inner workings of human smuggling operations on both sides of the border.

"Several undocumented non-citizen smuggling organizations operate in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada," reads an application for a search warrant written by David Spitzer, the Homeland Security Investigations special agent who headed the case.

"These organizations typically charge undocumented non-citizens between $5,000 and $10,000 [US] to be illegally brought across the U.S. border."

A 'Canadian-based facilitator'

Spitzer's affidavit says they began looking into Ortiz-Plata when his phone number cropped up in a series of human smuggling cases dating back to September 2022.

After one bust, two Mexican nationals claimed a "Canadian-based facilitator" gave them the number and said someone named Chuy "would pick them up after their unlawful entry into the United States and drive them to Oregon."

"'Chuy' has been identified as Jesus Ortiz-Plata with a listed address on his driver [licence] in Independence, Ore.," Spitzer wrote.

"Ortiz-Plata, a Mexican national, is an undocumented non-citizen with no known criminal history."

Spitzer described two "train smuggling events" — the first in August 2023, involving 28 Mexicans and one Colombian, and the second three months later, when U.S. customs agents found 13 Mexicans, many of whom attempted to flee when their train was ordered to stop.

Ortiz-Plata's name came up as a contact for migrants arrested in both incidents.

According to the court documents, agents then kept tabs on Ortiz-Plata as he travelled back and forth between Oregon and the Washington side of the border, watching as he drove groups of suspected migrants between hotels and residences.

Spitzer detailed a trip Ortiz-Plata took to California, where he made a "short stop at a residence ... the day after being suspected of picking up undocumented non-citizens."

A police officer pulled Ortiz-Plata over in a traffic stop on his way back that day, and investigators seized $13,400 in cash concealed in his car. 

"Ortiz-Plata stated that he works in construction and the money is from casino winnings," Spitzer wrote.

'Hide ... within the railroad cars'

Ortiz-Plata was arrested last May after agents watched him climb into his Jeep with an associate and three undocumented migrants, two from Honduras and one from India.

All three said they had been smuggled into the United States through Vancouver.

One of the Hondurans told agents he had been living and working in B.C., while his brother had spent the past four months in Calgary. He said the two each paid $4,000 US to a smuggler to take them from Vancouver to Portland.

"While still in Canada, an unknown Hispanic male picked him and his brother up from a bus stop and drove them to a train station. Once at the train station, a third man, the man who was also arrested with him, was waiting for him," reads an indictment filed in the case.

"The three men were instructed to climb and hide in the natural voids within the railroad cars of the freight train. They rode the train for approximately three hours before they got off and were picked up by an unknown person."

The third migrant arrested alongside Ortiz-Plata spoke Hindi and claimed he left India for Toronto two weeks earlier.

"A person from his village put him in contact with a person who could facilitate his travel into the United States illegally," Spitzer wrote.

The man claimed he flew to Vancouver and was then driven to the border, where "he was directed to walk across ... to a waiting vehicle."

Canadian-based smugglers and U.S. associates

The court documents don't identify anyone involved in operations on the Canadian side of the border, but Spitzer laid out the relationship between B.C. smuggling operations and U.S.-based associates like Ortiz-Plata, "who picks up the undocumented non-citizens once they cross the border illegally."

"These U.S. associates typically transport the undocumented non-citizens to the Seattle area, where associates may then assist the undocumented non-citizens with travel arrangements to other U.S. locations," Spitzer wrote.

"These undocumented non-citizen smuggling organizations may assist in facilitating a driver to transport undocumented non-citizens to other states, as many illegal entrants lack the identification required to travel by air or other mass transportation."

U.S. Border Patrol figures show a stark rise in the number of people apprehended in recent years trying to cross the land border from B.C. to the United States.

The figure rose from 166 in 2021 to 494 in 2022. By 2023, it jumped again to 1,662.

This year, by the end of September, the number had already reached 2,551.

According to court filings, Ortiz-Plata will be sentenced in February.