Woman pleads guilty to human smuggling after migrants drown in St. Lawrence River

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 said Thursday that Stephanie Square, 53, 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 describe Square as a dual citizen from the Canadian side of Akwesasne. They also say she 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.

“Aliens attempting to enter the United States illegally across the U.S.-Canada border are exposed to a range of dangers at the hands of human smugglers trying to capitalize on the misfortunes and misplaced hopes of others,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in a statement. 

“Here, in the face of known dangers, the defendant directed her co-conspirators to smuggle a family with young children across the St. Lawrence River on a cold, windy night with limited visibility. The dangers materialized into a preventable and tragic loss of life.”

Square’s charges only involved the deaths of the Romanian family, which included two children under the age of three.

She is set to be sentenced on Nov. 25 and faces between five years and life in prison.

Five other people previously pleaded guilty in the case.

They are Dakota Montour, 32, and Kawisiiostha Celecia Sharrow, 45, from the U.S. side of Akwesasne; Janet Terrance, 46, of Hogansburg, N.Y.; and Timothy Oakes, 35, and Rahsontanohstha Delormier, 31, of Akwesasne on the Canadian side. 

The U.S. Justice Department said that during the week of March 27, 2023, a “prolific” Canadian smuggler contacted Square to smuggle the Romanian family across the St. Lawrence.

Officials say she recruited multiple people to help, though one refused due to the high winds on the river that night. They say Square enlisted one of her regular drivers, Montour, to take the family to the residence of Timothy Oakes on Cornwall Island, described as a “notorious staging area for cross-border smuggling operations.”

Officials say Oakes later took the family to a public boat launch on the island where his brother Casey picked them up and embarked on their ill-fated journey.

The bodies of the migrants were pulled from the river in Akwesasne, about 130 kilometres southwest of Montreal, on March 30 and 31, 2023. The body of 30-year-old Casey was found in July 2023.

The Romanian family was made up of Florin Iordache, 28; his wife, Cristina (Monalisa) Zenaida Iordache, 28; their two-year-old daughter, Evelin; and one-year-old son, Elyen. Both children were Canadian citizens and the family had been living in the Toronto area. 

The four other people who died were members of the Chaudhari family from the western Indian state of Gujarat. They included the father, Praveenbhai Chaudhari, 50; mother, Dakshaben, 45; son, Meet, 20; and daughter, Vidhi, 23. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2026.