A dual U.S.-Canadian citizen was arrested last month for his alleged role in an attempt to smuggle a Romanian family of four into the United States, which left them dead, including two young children. 

Timothy Oakes, 34, from the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation (AMIR) in Canada, was arrested on June 15 while trying to enter the U.S. via the Massena, New York, port of entry, the Justice Department said. 

He is charged with conspiring with others to engage in alien smuggling, four counts of alien smuggling for profit, and four counts of alien smuggling resulting in death. He appeared in a federal court on Tuesday and was ordered held. 

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Timothy Oakes’ vehicle with a light blue boat in tow on March 29, 2023, which matched the boat found in the Saint. Lawrence River during recovery efforts. (Justice Department)

His U.S.-based co-conspirators — Dakota Montour, 31, and Kawisiiostha Celecia Sharrow, 43, both of Akwesasne-Mohawk, New York, and Janet Terrance, 45, of Hogansburg, New York — have all entered guilty pleas.

“Oakes and his co-conspirators profited from a human smuggling operation with a singular, cold-hearted aim: making money by bringing illegal aliens into the United States, regardless of the danger to human life involved,” said Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Their greed resulted in the deaths of a mother, a father, and two small children, as well as one of the defendants’ own brothers.”

Oakes smuggled illegal immigrants from Canada into northern New York using boats to get across the St. Lawrence River, federal prosecutors said. 

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A cruise boat approaches the Thousand Islands International Bridge on the St. Lawrence River connecting New York with Ontario, Canada in the middle of the 1000 Islands region. (Getty Images)

He earned $1,000 per person, authorities said. In March 2023, Oakes housed a Romanian family of four, together with other aliens, for about 24 hours before allegedly taking them on his boat in an attempt to illegally bring them into the U.S.  

Oakes, his brother Casey, and the Romanian family were on the vessel when it capsized, killing the family, including two children under the age of 3, and his brother. 

“Two toddler-aged children and their parents were the tragic victims of an alien smuggling attempt gone horribly wrong,” said Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector. “Their deaths were a direct result of callous smugglers who exploited the vulnerable.”

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Terrance, Montour, and Sharrow admitted in their plea agreements that they were employed to illegally transport the Romanian family — a mother, father, 1-year-old boy, and 2-year-old girl — from Canada into New York. Montour admitted that he was aware of the dangerous weather conditions on the day of the smuggling attempt — high winds, freezing temperatures, and limited visibility, the Justice Department said.