Four men who were seen walking on the Golden Road near Canada are facing federal criminal charges for allegedly entering the United States illegally.
The men, Ali Mohammed Ali Abdullah, Hameed Mohammed Nagi, Ibrahim Ayyub Khan and Mohammed Sultan Saleh, are charged with entry without inspection in U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor.
They all pleaded not guilty Tuesday and are held without bail. They are citizens of the United Kingdom, according to court records.
The men were found after maple sugar workers called U.S. Customs and Border Protection because they saw four men who appeared to be Middle Eastern walking on the Golden Road, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. An FBI agent was present in court Tuesday and a spokesperson declined to comment, citing the pending court cases. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
Two maple sugar workers were going to Canada around 9:15 a.m. on April 3 when they saw four men who appeared to be Middle Eastern walking on the Golden Road, near the St. Zacharie border crossing in western Maine, according to a probable cause affidavit. The workers called U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Two people in a car on the Golden Road were asking passers-by for fuel and Wi-Fi to contact people they were supposed to pick up, according to the affidavit. Another man called to report the car was near the driveway to his sugar shack.
Border Patrol agents started driving the Golden Road about an hour later and saw fresh footprints in the soft dirt, the affidavit said. The agents then found four men trying to hide in vegetation alongside the road.
The men were arrested and taken to the Border Patrol station in Jackman, the affidavit said. All four men said they were unaware they were in the United States and two said that they were on a hike.
Another agent followed the foot prints and discovered the men walked through the woods within a few hundred yards of the border crossing, the affidavit said.
Agents also found the car and two men inside. They were arrested for “suspected alien smuggling,” the affidavit said. A loaded handgun was found under the driver’s seat.
The passenger told officials that they were there to pick up a person they had dropped off in that same area about 30 days earlier, the affidavit said. A search of that passenger and driver’s cellphones found texts communicating with one of the four men, according to the affidavit.
Saleh’s cellphone had searched for “bangor from my location,” “boston from bangor,” “new york from boston” and “is st zahcerie border crossing still used the one near quebec golden road,” the affidavit said.
The four men also had a GoPro camera, which agents searched. Saleh narrated the footage, and at one point in the woods, he told the other men “I can confirm you are now on U.S. soil,” the affidavit said.
Ali Abdullah then asked, “I’m on U.S. soil?” and Saleh showed his phone with GPS location and then later said, “We just made it baby,” according to the affidavit.
