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Woman Extradited From Canada Pleads Guilty in Deadly St. Lawrence River Smuggling Case
Stephanie Square, a dual Canadian-American citizen from Akwesasne, admitted running a cross-border network blamed for the 2023 drowning deaths of a Romanian family and a boat captain
Published: July 28, 2026
Stephanie Square, 53, of the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory straddling the Canada-U.S. border near Cornwall, Ont., has pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court after being extradited from Canada for her role in a human smuggling operation.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Square led the American side of a network that, in March 2023, arranged to move a Romanian family with two young children across the St. Lawrence River by boat despite dangerously high winds and freezing conditions. The vessel capsized, killing the family of four and the boat's operator.
Square pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and multiple counts of smuggling resulting in death. She faces a minimum of five years and up to life in prison at sentencing in November. Several co-conspirators have already entered guilty pleas in the case, which has drawn renewed attention to smuggling routes along the shared border.
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