Chinese man jailed a year for smuggling people

A Chinese man has been sentenced to one year in jail for his role in a people-smuggling operation to Canada.

A court in St. John's handed down the sentence on Wednesday for Lin Zhou Zhang, 39, who pleaded guilty a week earlier.

He and five young Chinese citizens from Fujian province arrived in St. John's in early October.

They came aboard a Star Princess cruise ship from Denmark and tried to leave it using fake Korean passports.

Lin was carrying money and travel documents for the others and said it was because he was the only one in the group who spoke English.

Lin told the court he played only a minimal part in the people-smuggling scheme, but the judge said Lin held a pivotal role.

Lin was sentenced on five charges of counselling people to lie to immigration officers in order to enter Canada illegally.

He's also charged with entering the country illegally with a forged document.

That charge has been set aside until Lin's application for refugee status is resolved.

RCMP said last week that they were looking into a possible link between the case and a similar people-smuggling case in Nova Scotia.

In Halifax, another Chinese national, Jin Sin Youn, is accused of helping three countrymen enter Canada illegally on a cruise ship in the fall with fake Korean passports.

RCMP spokespeople have said they see the cases as signs that organized crime is looking at new ways of smuggling people into the country.

The force said in the past human-smuggling usually took place in airplanes with people carrying fake documents, or by car where they were hidden out of sight at border crossings.