Canada border Services is doing what it can to stop transnational criminal organizations known as South American Theft Groups from infiltrating Canada. Just this month (July), a man of Colombian nationality was found guilty, in a Montreal court, of using Mexican passports to contravene the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), following a CBSA criminal investigation. He was also convicted of misrepresenting his identity in order to obtain electronic travel authorizations (ETAs) and enter Canada.

Canada Border Services says this is the latest in a series of sentences that were handed, since October 2019, to eleven other men and two women from Colombia, and three men from Peru for similar infractions.
The Agency says these individuals are suspected of being members of the Theft Groups. After entering Canada, CBS says, most of them committed thefts when they broke and entered homes and businesses.