HUMAN SMUGGLING REMAINS LUCRATIVE (Niagara Falls & Northern Border)

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/citycide141.html ^ | 02/21/08 | By David Staba

[Sammy67]

m they'd never met before, nine people boarded the raft in Niagara Falls, Ont. With a puttering motor dragging the overloaded vessel -- carrying at least twice the 660 pounds for which it was rated -- across the current of the upper Niagara River, with no oars, anchor or even lifejackets to protect them if it failed, they made their way to Grand Island. Where the United States Border Patrol was waiting.

Smuggling certainly isn't what it used to be in Niagara Falls. The area's role as one of the busiest crossings for bootleggers during Prohibition remains part of regional lore. The narrow channel of the lower river helped fuel the empire of Don Stefano Magaddino, who reigned for more than half a century.

Nobody's rowing cases of whiskey across the Niagara anymore, but humans have proven a steadily lucrative cargo since before Don Stefano even arrived in America.

Talk to the right old-timers, and you'll hear tales that veer between comical and horrific. There was a cable car, launched from Niagara Falls, Ont., that swung out over the river to offer tourists a perspective impossible to achieve on land. Its path also created an optical illusion from the launch point that might make a rider think he was landing on the American side, if he wasn't paying attention.

The story goes that smugglers would charge illegal aliens $100, give them a ticket for the cable car, and carefully tell them to get on the car, don't make eye contact with anyone during the ride, get off when it stopped and quickly walk away, following meticulous directions to a restaurant or house where another smuggler was allegedly waiting to deliver them to their final destination -- usually New York City. The sucker would follow the directions, only to find

[Sammy67]

They also leisurely boat across the Great Lakes in the Spring, Summer and Fall.

[Gondring]

Funny headline...easily misread, with “remains” as a noun.

The lede was cut off in the original post. For those who hate to follow links:

CITYCIDE: HUMAN SMUGGLING REMAINS LUCRATIVE
By David Staba

They must have wanted to get here badly.

In the pre-dawn hours of June 5, a family from Pakistan and three women from India climbed into an inflatable raft best suited to floating in a tranquil pond to finish their journey to America with a dash across the raging Niagara.

Counting the craft’s pilot, whom they’d never met before, nine people boarded the raft in Niagara Falls, Ont. With a puttering motor dragging the overloaded vessel — carrying at least twice the 660 pounds for which it was rated — across the current of the upper Niagara River, with no oars, anchor or even lifejackets to protect them if it failed, they made their way to Grand Island. Where the United States Border Patrol was waiting.
[...]

[proudmilitarymrs]

Thanks, so nice to hear about my hometown of Niagara Falls and nobody mentioned the 3 Stooges!!!

mrs