Janet Terrance, 45, pled guilty in Hogansburg, New York, this week for her part in a human smuggling operation that resulted in the deaths of a family of four, including two children under the age of three. Terrance worked with five other people to bring people from India and Romania to the United States for personal financial gain. Dakota Montour, age 31, and Kawisiiostha Celecia Sharrow, age 43, of Akwesasne previously plead guilty to this on January 23, 2025, and October 8, 2024.
The U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division supervisory official, Antoinette T. Bacon, says, “The defendant and her co-conspirators – fuelled by greed, indifference, and recklessness – smuggled aliens via vehicle and boat across the U.S./Canada border in dangerous weather conditions. They endangered the lives of two small children and their parents for profit, resulting in the family’s tragic deaths. Dismantling transnational criminal organizations that smuggle people into and throughout the United States is a top priority for the Department of Justice.”
Court documents state that Terrance, Montour, and Sharrow admitted to working with a human smuggling organization in Cornwall, Ontario and the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation. They smuggled aliens from the mainland at Cornwall to Cornwall Island, and then into the Northern District of New York.
Montour pled guilty to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, alien smuggling for financial gain, and alien smuggling resulting in death. The maximum term he is facing is life. Both Sharrow and Terrance pled guilty to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and to alien smuggling for financial gain. Each of those counts holds a mandatory minimum term of five years in prison, with the maximum term being 15 years in prison. A federal district court judge will decide their sentencing.