DERBY LINE –– A human smuggling operation that funneled migrants from Latin America across the Canadian border into the rural woods of northern Vermont resulted in a federal indictment unsealed yesterday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Francisco Antonio Luna Rosado, 27, a Dominican national, and Jesus Hernandez Ortiz, 37, of Puerto Rico, face conspiracy charges and 12 counts of illegally bringing foreign nationals into the United States for private financial gain. Luna Rosado faces two additional counts of transactional money laundering.
The operation moved migrants across the border near Stanstead, Quebec, which sits directly on the international line adjoining Derby Line and Holland. An image released by law enforcement shows coordinates and a route through a wooded area just north of Chemin Lagueux in Stanstead, with a path leading across the border into Vermont.
According to court documents, Luna Rosado directed the smuggling network from at least August 2022 through at least March 2024. Migrants flew from their home countries in Mexico, Central America, and South America to southern Canada. From there, Luna Rosado used live shared cellular location data to guide them on foot across the border into northern Vermont.
Once across, drivers were dispatched. Luna Rosado coordinated pickups using an encrypted chat platform with approximately 70 participants, arranging for drivers — including Hernandez Ortiz — to collect migrants near the border and transport them south to New York City. Upon arrival, migrants paid Luna Rosado in U.S. currency. He then deposited and withdrew the proceeds through the U.S. financial system in amounts exceeding $10,000, according to the indictment.
In one instance detailed in court documents, law enforcement stopped a rented Home Depot van driven by Hernandez Ortiz during an alleged smuggling event on Sept. 17, 2023.
The case was investigated by agents from the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector Intelligence Unit, assigned to the Newport Station, and the Homeland Security Investigations office in Derby Line, with assistance from HSI’s Human Smuggling Unit in Washington and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center.
The prosecution is being handled by the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont as part of Joint Task Force Alpha, a federal initiative targeting transnational human smuggling and trafficking organizations. To date, the task force has produced more than 435 domestic and international arrests and more than 385 U.S. convictions.
The Swanton Sector, which covers Vermont’s northern border, has seen increased federal attention in recent years as smuggling networks have exploited remote, heavily wooded stretches of the U.S.-Canada line.
