A judge in Windsor has shown mercy to a Cameroonian man who was battling human trafficking and other charges for ferrying 11 Nigerians into Canada through the US-Canada border.
Instead of a two-year jail term, the 46-year-old Paul Ngoue-Ngameleu, was sentenced to one year house arrest.
Paul, a commercial trucker, had claimed during trial in February that he didn’t know that 11 people climbed behind his truck when he crossed the Ambassador Bridge that connects Michigan to United States in 2017.
He made it known that he and co-driver, Henadez Makia Mbeh, while coming back from the west coast, were approached by a Nigerian at their last Michigan stop after parking and before entering a rest stop.
Owing to some paperwork differences at the border an hour’s drive later, they were asked by Canadian customs at the bridge to go to secondary inspection but they were soon arrested for trying to ignore that direction. It was then that Canada Border Services Agency officers detected the three women and their eight children that had been in the United States on visitors’ visas.
Though the 11 Nigerians were sent back to the US, Paul faced human trafficking charges in line with the “conditions” under which the victims were found in the trailer.
In February, the judge suggested that Paul, a former refugee, was more like a Good Samaritan who was trying to help fellow Africans into Canada and not a trafficker. Paul’s claim of not knowing about the refugees was rejected and charges against the co-driver were dropped.
Justice Thomas Carey said: “There’s no evidence that these passengers were victims” and added that the facts tendered were “not inconsistent” with the contention of the defence that the incident was a foiled “humanitarian enterprise attempt” and not a for-profit criminal undertaking.
Initially, Federal prosecutor, Alexa Posliff suggested a three-year prison term, but he later recommended a two-year jail sentence. A conditional or suspended sentence was sought defence lawyer Kenneth Golish.
Carey cited previous court cases in which judges stated that a message of general deterrence to others should be the overarching factor in determining a fit sentence in cases related to human smuggling, which challenges the integrity of a nation’s borders and poses a risk to society with the potential flow of terrorists and other criminals.
Carey concluded there was no evidence of pre-planning, though there was limited proof presented at trial.
