4 charged after 8 people found hidden in vehicle near Canada-U.S. border: OPP

Four people face charges the OPP says are related to human smuggling following a traffic stop in a Canada-U.S. border town on Tuesday. 

According to an OPP release issued Wednesday afternoon, OPP and RCMP members stopped a vehicle in Cornwall, Ont., that was travelling in the direction of the Canada Border Services Agency and headed toward the United States. 

Officers found eight people "concealed" in the back of the vehicle.

The driver and a passenger of that vehicle were arrested and charged with section 465(3) of the Criminal Code of Canada, which is described in the code as follows:

"Every one who, while in Canada, conspires with any one to do anything referred to in subsection (1) in a place outside Canada that is an offence under the laws of that place shall be deemed to have conspired to do that thing in Canada."

Two people tied to other "suspect vehicles" involved in the incident face the same charge. 

Back in court next month

The four accused are from Quebec and Akwesasne, a Haudenosaunee community that straddles the Canada-U.S. border and sits along the St. Lawrence River just south of Cornwall and about 120 kilometres west of Montreal.

They have been released from custody and are next due in Cornwall court on Feb. 25. 

The eight people found hidden in the first vehicle have also been arrested.

"Charges may be laid if applicable," the OPP said in its release. 

Tuesday's operation involved the Border Enforcement Security Task Force, a cross-border team that, according to the OPP's release, is led by the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. 

The release contained little other information about the incident, including where the eight people originated from and where exactly in the United States the vehicle was headed. CBC has reached out to the OPP for more information.