![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2e9bb2b7-64fa-4942-8736-db9fd326f2e9_1660591986.file.png\")
BANGOR, Maine \u2014<\/p>\nMan admits driving from Florida to Maine to pick up woman who illegally crossed the border<\/p>\n
BANGOR, Maine \u2014<\/p>\n
A man from Florida pleaded guilty in federal court in Bangor, Maine, on Monday to transporting an illegal alien.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, on Sept. 4, 2023, U.S. Border Patrol agents were working on equipment in the Lowelltown area of Maine, a remote, wooded area of Franklin County along the Canadian border, when they were notified by Houlton Sector of a possible human smuggling event happening right where the agents were heading.<\/p>\n
Border Patrol says this part of the border has a history of smuggling activity and is only accessible by driving along about 25 miles of dirt logging roads. Agents say Lowelltown is used by smugglers and undocumented immigrants to illegally enter the U.S. when there is no snow on the ground. There is also a large sign and a gate.<\/p>\n
Border Patrol says they are familiar with most of the people who spend time in the area, including camp owners, loggers and people working on the NECEC power corridor. “It is rare that someone who is not known to frequent this area to be there,” an agent said in court documents.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, at about 10:14 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2023, a silver car drove to the border and parked on the north side of the gate, in Canada. Court documents say two women got out of the car and one was seen walking past the gate and entering the United States carrying two bags. Court documents say the other woman got back in the car and drove away.<\/p>\n
At 10:27 a.m., a woman matching the description was seeN walking further into Maine on Lowelltown Road. That is when Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Customs and Border Patrol Air Operations and Jackman Border Patrol Station were advised of the incursion and told to respond.<\/p>\n
Using monitoring equipment in the area, a black SUV with a male driver was seen headed toward the area. At about 11:10 a.m., agents spotted the SUV, this time with a woman in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, when the agents stopped the vehicle and talked with the people inside, they claimed they were just driving around, but both were visibly nervous. The driver, identified as John Boniello, 40, of Fort Lauderdale, said he was an American citizen, and the woman said she was a French citizen, but could not say how she entered the United States.<\/p>\n
When agents ran the woman’s French passport, they discovered there was a Visa Waiver Denial for re-entry because she had been caught with marijuana in Hawaii.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, when agents questioned the pair again, Boniello said they were camping. When agents said they knew the woman had crossed illegally, Boniello said he also knew it, but said “he only picked her up so they could ‘hang out’ and he planned to return her to Canada later that day.”<\/p>\n
Both people were then arrested. <\/p>\n
According to court documents, during subsequent interviews, the woman admitted that she knew what she did was a crime and Boniello admitted that he drove from Florida to pick the woman up after she crossed and planned to take her back to Florida.<\/p>\n
Boniello faces a maximum of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. Under a plea agreement, it is being recommended that he be sentenced to time-served.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Man admits driving from Florida to Maine to pick up woman who illegally crossed the border BANGOR, Maine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[158997,16325,158990,158998,158991,32791,28,30,29,22808,158999,159000,159001,28911,158992,158993,158994,158995,98254,159002,158996,9219,98256],"class_list":["post-399567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-border-crime","tag-border-patrol","tag-canadian-border","tag-crossing-the-border","tag-esmerelda-belfodil","tag-federal-court","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-guilty-plea","tag-human-smuggling","tag-illegal-alien","tag-illegal-crossing","tag-immigration-policy","tag-john-boniello","tag-maine-border","tag-maine-crime","tag-maine-news","tag-maines-total-coverage","tag-marijuana-charge","tag-rcmp","tag-undocumented-immigrant","tag-wmtw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}