Four arrested for human smuggling Tamil refugees on Ocean Lady

On June 14, 2011 the RCMP Border Integrity Program has arrested four males in connection to the Ocean Lady migrant boat that arrived off the coast of British Columbia in October of 2009.

On October 17, 2009, the vessel “Ocean Lady” carrying 76 migrants from Sri Lanka arrived off the coast of Vancouver Island in BC. Since then, the RCMP have been working in conjunction with CBSA to determine if there was any criminality associated to this endeavour. 
 

Arrested on Canada-wide warrants include:

1) 33-year-old Vignarajah THEVARAJAH
2) 33-year-old Francis ANTHONIMUTHU APPULONAPPA
3) 39-year-old Hamalraj HANDASAMY
4) 32-year-old Jeyachandran KANAGARAJAH

The individuals are alleged to be involved with organizing the overall venture and of being active leaders on the vessel. These individuals have each been charged via direct indictment under Human Smuggling legislation, specifically for the offence of Organizing Entry into Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Currently, the individuals have been remanded in custody as the investigation is ongoing and eventually they will be transported back to Vancouver to appear before a judge.

“The RCMP Border Integrity Program is dedicated to protecting Canada’s coastline as well as combating and disrupting any attempts to exploit the border such as in this case of human smuggling. Our investigators have worked tirelessly for the past 20 months to gather sufficient evidence to support charges resulting in today’s successful arrests,” said Superintendent Tom Jones, Officer in Charge of the RCMP Border Integrity Program in BC.