At the wheel of a red SUV, Jhader Augusto Uribe-Tobar drove four Mexican citizens on September 1 on the small Montée Glass street in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle.
This route is well known to Canadian authorities as it runs parallel to the Canada-US border and connects the famous Roxham Road with Highway 15, which leads into New York State.
According to our information, this sector is regularly used by migrants who want to reach the United States secretly by exploring the surrounding forests and fields on foot.
The body of Fritznel Richard, a Haitian who wanted to leave Canada, was found here on January 4, 2023. This man died of hypothermia.
But at the end of the summer, neither the driver Uribe-Tobar nor his passengers had time to leave their vehicle to get to the forest. They were arrested by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) agent who verified their identities and status in Canada, and were eventually able to leave the country.
A few hours later, the same four Mexicans tried their luck again. The success was short-lived. As soon as they crossed the border, they were arrested by American agents.
A father waiting for refugee status
This information appears in court documents filed with the Quebec Superior Court, which must decide an extradition request from the United States. At her request, Uribe-Tobar was arrested by the RCMP in late December before being remanded in custody at a Montreal prison.
According to his lawyer, this 35-year-old father, originally from Colombia, arrived in Canada about 18 months ago to seek asylum before settling in an apartment in Saint-Hyacinthe on the south coast. from Montreal.
Uribe-Tobar poses a danger to the public.
According to the American justice system, Uribe-Tobar is involved in several secret crossings. Americans also suspect he was behind the fatal crossing of Ana Karen Vasquez-Flores last month.
The body of this Mexican citizen was found by American police on December 14 in the Great Chazy River near the village of Champlain.
According to the statement of Samuel Métivier, a Canadian gendarme, obtained by Radio-Canada, Uribe-Tobar was seen on December 11 with the future victim, who was pregnant. That day, Ana Karen Vasquez-Flores was dropped off just a stone's throw from the border.
Uribe-Tobar was using the same car that had been intercepted on September 1, writes the RCMP agent, who also provides details about how Vasquez-Flores and Uribe-Tobar came into contact.
Photo album: Jaime Garcia
Numerous announcements on social networks
According to these court documents, Uribe-Tobar is active on TikTok under the pseudonym Jaime Garcia. After seeing an advertisement on the account, Vasquez-Flores' husband contacted him about smuggling his wife into the United States.
As Enquête has already revealed, several criminal networks, some of which have ties to Mexican cartels, are using social networks to promote their illegal crossing offers. During our research, we then discovered a large number of advertisements and videos of Jaime Garcia that came from the same profile identified by the American justice system.
According to our findings, since last summer this man has also been offering his transportation service in a private Facebook group aimed at Mexicans living in Montreal.
“We have a flight out to Plattsburgh this week,” he wrote on September 6, for example. “Quickly and safely,” he clarified several times, adding photos of American and Canadian flags and even images of New York.
In these advertisements, Jaime Garcia regularly provided several telephone numbers with area codes for the Montreal area and Mexico. One of them appears in the evidence destined for the Quebec Superior Court. According to the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec, this telephone number is also directly related to Uribe-Tobar, the accused explains.
He also published photos of himself, his loved ones and even a weapon on his own profile.
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A photo of Jhader Augusto Uribe-Tobar released by the American Justice Department.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Excerpt from the court file
Fatal crossing at $2500
Uribe-Tobar was targeted in the United States on three counts related to human trafficking and, according to the American justice system, demanded $2,500 from Ana Karen Vasquez-Flores' husband, Miguel Mojarro-Magana, to bring his wife to the United States.
[M. Mojarro-Magana] Saw an ad on TikTok for crossings from Canada to the US and reads a summary of the facts.
Various text messages were then exchanged between the two men, with the number linked to Uribe-Tobar, according to court documents. Jaime Garcia describes a journey without a guide that lasts two and a half to three hours, depending on walking speed, before he submits the numbers of a bank account at an American bank.
During his partner's crossing, Mojarro-Magana also asked his interlocutor for news. “She's going over, friend,” was the answer he got. U.S. authorities believe Uribe-Tobar was remotely directing Vasquez-Flores, who was eventually found unresponsive on Dec. 14 by Clinton Sheriff's Office deputies.
Uribe-Tobar was incarcerated in Bordeaux prison and was present at the Montreal courthouse via video conference on January 12. He didn't say a word during a brief hearing attended by relatives, including his pregnant wife, who sat crying on the court benches.
His representative, Luc Trempe, obtained a postponement of the consideration of this extradition request until February 23, time for the examination of the American evidence.
This is a very difficult humanitarian and human situation for everyone at the moment.
His client, who speaks neither French nor English, would be a little shocked. We didn't even talk about the facts. “Before we deny anything, we will see everything,” he later explained in the corridors of the Palace of Justice.
“We know that in the United States the penalties are more severe,” emphasizes his lawyer. He is threatened with expulsion [dans son pays d’origine].