Colombian man charged in U.S. for smuggling pregnant woman who died crossing from Canada

A Colombian man has been arraigned in the United States after being extradited from Canada on charges related to the smuggling of a 32-year-old Mexican woman who drowned shortly after having crossed the border into Champlain, N.Y., south of Montreal, in December 2023. 

The man, Jhader Augusto Uribe-Tobar, 36, was living in Quebec when he is alleged to have driven Ana Karen Vasquez-Flores near the border, then instructed her over WhatsApp messages on where to go before getting picked up by associates of his, according to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in northern New York. 

The document says Vasquez-Flores’s husband, Miguel Mojarro-Magana, had contacted Uribe-Tobar on TikTok, where he is alleged to have been advertising smuggling services. Less than a week later, Mojarro-Magana wired the man $2,500 to help his wife cross into the U.S.

On the evening of Dec. 11, 2023, according to the document, Uribe-Tobar texted Mojarro-Magana to say Vasquez-Flores had made it to the Great Chazy River, where he had instructed her to wade across. 

About 40 minutes later, Mojarro-Magana received a message, saying, “Bro hello, I think she got wet or turned off her cell phone. Bro, I told her to hold it while she was crossing.”

Uribe-Tobar allegedly told Mojarro-Magana that he had people searching for Vasquez-Flores and that “I already sent them a pin to see if they see her, I told them what happened and that she is pregnant.”

The next day Mojarro-Magana reported his wife’s disappearance to U.S. Border Patrol agents in Champlain, where police, border patrol and firefighters began searching for her. Her body was found in the river on Dec. 14, 2023. 

The allegations against Uribe-Tobar have not been proven in court. They carry a minimum term of three years imprisonment and a maximum of life in prison.