Stacey Taylor, 43, of Plattsburgh, N.Y., has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in alien smuggling and four counts of alien smuggling for profit, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. She faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison upon sentencing on December 3.
The case stems from an incident near Churubusco, New York, just south of the Quebec border on January 20, 2025. U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped Taylor’s vehicle during early morning hours and discovered four men inside: three Indian nationals and one Canadian citizen. All had crossed the border illegally by foot in freezing temperatures without inspection.
According to court documents, the men trekked through a wooded area before meeting Taylor, who was waiting in her vehicle to transport them farther into the United States. Investigators later found Taylor’s cellphone contained coordinates sent to locate migrants and instructions for their pickup. Taylor admitted she picked up the four men with the expectation of payment, per prosecutors. Messages on her phone also indicated participation in multiple smuggling operations over several days prior to the January arrest.
The January 2025 stop did not end Taylor’s alleged activities. The Justice Department reported she was subsequently stopped in August 2025 in connection with a suspected smuggling operation and implicated in another incident shortly thereafter. The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Border Patrol as part of Joint Task Force Alpha, an initiative targeting transnational human-smuggling organizations. Since its creation, this task force has produced over 477 arrests and 431 convictions involving smugglers and significant facilitators.
