Human smuggling charges laid in Nova Scotia
Canwest News Service
June 23, 2010
SHELBURNE, N.S. Two men have been charged following an RCMP investigation into human smuggling after border officials found 10 people who sailed into a Nova Scotian port Saturday night.
Police stopped a boat, displaying the name 'Valletta', late Saturday at a Shelburne yacht club, with five men and five women from Eastern Europe on-board. Three of the people were identified as crewmen.
By Monday night, immigrant officials wrapped up their investigation to “determine any possible connection to organized crime, including human smuggling.”
Vasyl Aksenin, 26, and Mykola Tyshkivskyy, 46, both of Ukraine, face human smuggling charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
The vessel was travelling from Bermuda and was spotted off Shelburne, a two-hour drive from Halifax, by a Canada Coast Guard ship. Crewmen were having engine troubles and contacted the U.S. coast guard for help as Canadians spotted the boat, Canada Border Services Agency said.
