Two men hijack fishing boat to slip into United States


By Nancy Fischer | News Niagara Reporter
on December 10, 2014 - 7:46 AM, updated December 10, 2014 at 10:58 AM

The search continued Wednesday for two young men who hijacked a fishing boat on Lake Ontario in order to enter the United States from Canada Tuesday afternoon.

One of the men spoke only French and the other spoke both French and English, with a New Jersey accent, said U.S. Border Patrol Agent Michael Zimmerman.

A father and son said the men approached them at the Queenston, Ont. docks and offered to pay $200 to be taken out fishing. The father was unable to go out, but his 17-year-old son, who captained the boat, told Niagara County sheriff’s deputies that he took the two men late Tuesday morning for a day of fishing on Lake Ontario.

He said after about two hours on the water, they appeared to lose interest in fishing and offered to pay more to get closer to the U.S. side in order to take pictures. When they got closer, the teen said man with the New Jersey accent threatened him with a knife and told him to drop them off in the United States, according to the Niagara County sheriff’s report.

The captain brought the boat to shore near Fort Niagara and the two men fled on foot.

They are described as being in their mid-20s. The French-speaking man was about 6 feet tall and 175 pounds and wearing a bright blue coat and white winter hat. The other was 5 feet, 11 inches tall and 200 pounds, with black hair and a short trimmed beard, wearing a black sweater, track pants and white Nikes.

Niagara County Chief Deputy Steven Preisch said Wednesday that his department and Border Patrol had extra units searching for the two men. He added that Lewiston-Porter Central School was in lockdown and restricted outdoor recess.

According to the Coast Guard, the teenager piloting the boat cooperated with the demands and took the men to shore near Four Mile Creek State Park in New York.

Both men had phones and began making calls as they fled the scene on foot.

The teen went to Station Niagara and reported the hijacking.

Coast Guard crews completed a shoreline search with no sightings.

A resident in the 500 block of Lake Road told deputies that he had seen the two men in his backyard at the same time. The resident asked the men if they were OK and they held up their phones saying, “We’re all set.”

Zimmerman said Border Patrol’s Integrated Border Enforcement Team has been deployed since the incident is a crossborder crime. It includes Border Patrol, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the U.S. Coast Guard, the officers at the ports and Homeland Security.

“For Buffalo-sector all of our border is a water border,” Zimmerman said. “We’ve seen boats come across, rafts come across, kayaks, canoes, pretty much anything that you can come across the water on. This is a little more uncommon because of the way they crossed.”
He said at this point they don’t know why the men crossed.

“There is always a concern for safety when someone enters the country illegally. But most of the time the goal of that incursion is to get to some location for whatever so the danger to the immediate public is fairly minimal,” Zimmerman said.

Once Coast Guard investigators gathered all the information and evidence they needed, they took the young captain and his vessel back to Queenston.

Anyone with information or who might have seen the men is asked to call 911, or Border Patrol at 1-800-331-0353 or their local police agencies.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/courts/two-men-hijack-fishing-boat-to-slip-into-united-states-20141210