A Brazilian man, who smuggled four people across the Niagara River from Canada to Grand Island in 2019, was sentenced Friday to 27 months in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara imposed the sentence on Tiago Mello-Lima, 34, who was convicted of smuggling the illegals across the river in a boat on April 28, 2019, in exchange for a payment of $6,000 each.
Mello-Lima had a contact in the U.S. who picked up the four and took them to their final destinations in this country, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
A Border Patrol investigation showed Mello-Lima, who was living in Canada, had smuggled six other people across the river between March and July 2019. Canadian authorities extradited Mello-Lima to the U.S. in March 2020.
Previously, co-defendant Renan Portela Bandeira de Souza also pleaded guilty to bringing undocumented people to the United States for commercial advantage or private financial gain and was sentenced by Arcara to 21 months in prison.
Thomas J. Prohaska
Reporter
I have covered Niagara County for The Buffalo News since 1995, when I joined the paper after 10 years as news director at WLVL in Lockport.
