http://www.unison.ie/stories.php3?ca=30&si=1613621

Dozens of Irish smuggled into US in bar-room plot

Sunday May 14th 2006

SEAN O'DRISCOLL

in NEW YORK


DOZENS of Irish immigrants were given disguises of jackets, pairs of glasses and hats while being smuggled across the Canadian border, US prosecutors have claimed while indicting a barwoman allegedly involved in the scheme.

Shannon Lee, the barwoman at Campbell's Irish pub in Buffalo, New York, is also accused of coaching the Irish immigrants on the likely questions they would be asked at a US immigration post and of supplying her clients with false driver's licences.

According to the US Attorney's Office in Buffalo, the driver's licences were obtained in advance, after agents working for the immigrants rang ahead to give a general description of their clients. Prosecutors say that Lee drove the immigrants across the border whileanother car carried theirluggage in order to avoiddetection.

The disguises were used to hide people who had previously been caught crossing the border or to make the person seem more like the false driver's licenses supplied to them by Ms Lee. Details of the operation are included in Ms Lee's indictment papers.

She is to appear in court next month to answer the charges as the Department of Homeland Security continues to hunt for Irish people involved in the scheme.

Meanwhile the owner of Campbell's bar, 37-year-old Bridget Campbell, has admitted smuggling at least 30 Irish people across the Canadian border in eight months, according to a plea agreement she signed with US prosecutors. She is to be sentenced next month after admitting that she ran the operation between December 2003 and August 2004.

She also admitted hiring bar employees and patrons to pick up illegal Irish in Fort Erie, Ontario, about 13 miles north of the Niagara Falls, and drive them across the Peace Bridge into Buffalo in New York state. Ms Campbell said she organised false driver's licences for the immigrants after clients told her their general descriptions. She also paid $300 to the drivers, $100 to people who picked up the luggage from Canada and $50 to US citizens who sat as passengers in one of the smuggling cars. A Campbell's bar customer, Michael O'Malley, of Niagara St, Buffalo, has admitted driving the immigrants across the border.

Assistant US Attorney, Gretchen Wylegala, said she could not comment on whether Ms Campbell's arrest is linked to the indictment last week of nine Irish people involved in moving people across the Canadian border and into Buffalo.

Six of those people have been arrested while three others are being sought by the Department of Homeland Security. At least two, includinga wealthy pub owner anda taxi driver, both from Cavan, are believed to be back inIreland.