NY Woman pleads guilty in scheme to smuggle Indians into US via Canada
A New York woman has pleaded guilty to her role in an international smuggling conspiracy that illegally brought people, primarily from India, into the United States across its northern border.
Stacey Taylor, 43, of Plattsburgh, New York, was involved in a human smuggling operation in January 2025 that was intercepted, involving people from India who were illegally brought into the United States.
According to court documents, US Border Patrol agents stopped Taylor's vehicle near Churubusco, New York, in the early hours of January 20, 2025, and discovered four men inside — three from India and one from Canada — who had just illegally crossed the US-Canada border without inspection in freezing weather.
When law enforcement later examined Taylor's cellphone, they found she had received coordinates showing the individuals' location and instructions to pick them up. The four men had illegally entered the United States on foot through a wooded area before getting into Taylor's waiting vehicle, which then drove them further into the US.
After law enforcement stopped her vehicle, Taylor admitted she had picked up the four men and expected to be paid for doing so.
A further review of her phone revealed text messages indicating she had been involved in multiple other human smuggling events in the days before the incident. Following her January 2025 arrest, she was stopped in a suspected smuggling venture in August 2025 and again implicated in alien smuggling in September 2025.
Taylor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in alien smuggling and four counts of alien smuggling for profit. She is scheduled to be sentenced in December and faces a statutory minimum penalty of five years in prison.
