New York City, NY, USA: A New York woman has pleaded guilty to her role in an international migrant-smuggling operation that primarily involved bringing Indian nationals across the U.S.-Canada border illegally.
Stacey Taylor, 43, of Plattsburgh, New York, pleaded guilty on August 11 to conspiracy to engage in alien smuggling and four counts of alien smuggling for profit, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The case relates to a failed smuggling operation in January 2025. On the early morning of January 20, U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped Taylor's vehicle near Churubusco, New York, and found four men inside.
Authorities determined that three of the men were from India and one was from Canada. Investigators said the four had illegally crossed the U.S.-Canada border on foot without inspection and had entered the United States through a wooded area in freezing conditions.
According to court documents, the men then entered Taylor's waiting vehicle, after which she drove them farther into the United States.
A subsequent examination of Taylor's cellphone revealed that she had received location coordinates and instructions for picking up the migrants. Taylor also told law enforcement that she had picked up the four men and expected to be paid for doing so.
Investigators later found additional text messages on her phone indicating that she had been involved in multiple other migrant-smuggling operations in the days before the January incident.
Following her January 2025 arrest, Taylor was reportedly stopped again in August 2025 during a suspected migrant-smuggling operation. She was also implicated in another smuggling incident in September 2025, according to the Justice Department.
Taylor is scheduled to be sentenced on December 3. She faces a statutory minimum sentence of five years in prison. The final sentence will be determined by a federal district court judge after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other applicable statutory factors.
The investigation and prosecution were supported by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), a U.S. Department of Justice initiative focused on high-impact human smuggling and trafficking operations involving cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
According to the Justice Department, JTFA's efforts have resulted in more than 477 domestic and international arrests, over 431 U.S. convictions and more than 370 significant prison sentences, along with substantial asset forfeitures.
