Mexican immigrant smuggled into ... Castlegar?
By Kyra Hoggan
The wee hours of Friday morning saw Castlegar police handling an unusual situation, for our area.
“At about 2:15 a.m., a male dialed 911, stating that he had no money and needed help to go back to Mexico,” said Castlegar RCMP Cpl. Deb Postnikoff, adding police went to the No Frills parking lot, where they found the caller. “They attempted to communicate with the man, who spoke only Spanish.”
After attempts proved fruitless, police brought the man back to the Castlegar detachment and obtained the services of an interpreter, thus determining the man had been smuggled illegally, from Mexico into the U.S., and then into Canada.
“Immigration was contacted, and they picked him up Saturday morning and escorted him to Vancouver for trial and likely deportation,” said Postnikoff. “He was cold when we found him, not dressed at all for Canadian weather.”
She said Castlegar is too far from the U.S. border and way too far from the Mexican border for immigration issues to be of much concern, under ordinary circumstances.
“It’s very rare for us to get these types of files.”
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