PLATTSBURGH, NY – A dual Canadian American citizen has appeared in federal court in Plattsburgh after being extradited from Canada to face charges related to a human smuggling conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of a family of four, including two small children, in the St. Lawrence River.
According to the Department of Justice, 52-year-old Stephanie Square, of the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation in Canada, was indicted in June 2024 on multiple counts, including conspiracy to engage in alien smuggling, four counts of alien smuggling for profit, and four counts of alien smuggling resulting in death.
Square was arrested in Canada in August 2024 following a U.S. request for extradition. Investigators allege she was the U.S.-based leader of an alien smuggling organization that operated across the U.S.–Canada border via the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation.
Prosecutors say that in March 2023, Square coordinated the illegal crossing of a Romanian family of four despite dangerous weather conditions. The family’s bodies were later recovered from the St. Lawrence River, along with the body of the boat’s captain months later.
Several co-conspirators have already been charged and pleaded guilty, including U.S.-based participants from Akwesasne and Hogansburg, New York.
The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with support from multiple U.S. and Canadian agencies as part of Joint Task Force Alpha, a Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security partnership aimed at dismantling human smuggling and trafficking networks.
