ManitobaJose Pablo Hilario Pimentel, 35, was sentenced Wednesday after he admitted to driving five Mexican nationals to Manitoba from Ontario with the intention of taking them across the U.S. border.Jose Pablo Hilario Pimentel gets 3-year sentence after trying to sneak 5 Mexican nationals into U.S.Arturo Chang · CBC News · Posted: Oct 09, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoRCMP said in a March 2024 social media post they had arrested Jose Pablo Hilario Pimentel in southern Manitoba. He was sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty to trying to smuggle five Mexican nationals into the U.S. (RCMP)A man who was arrested for human smuggling during a traffic stop last year in Manitoba, close to the U.S. border, has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to three years in prison.Jose Pablo Hilario Pimentel, 35, admitted to driving five Mexican nationals to Manitoba from London, Ont., with the intention of getting them across the border into the United States.A Manitoba court heard Wednesday he was arrested in March after a traffic stop in Morden, just over 20 kilometres north of North Dakota.Crown prosecutor Colin Gray said police found five people in the van Hilario Pimentel was driving, which had an Ontario licence plate and was registered under a different person’s name.Some of the people in the van said they intended to pay Hilario Pimentel between $1,000 and $2,000 to get them across the border.Gray said phone messages displayed how Hilario Pimentel co-ordinated his clients’ travel to Ontario and into the U.S. The Crown said they also showed it was for profit, citing roughly translated messages in which the smuggler compared his service to his competition.”They’ll take you to California or Boston for $2,500, which you pay over there. With me, you pay $2,000,” Gray read. “These text messages display ordinary salesmanship,” Gray said. “They display an understanding, a clear understanding, of what he was doing and what he intended to do.”Gray said authorities first flagged Hilario Pimentel as a person of interest when a group of Mexican nationals were detained in the U.S. after they reportedly walked across the border near Sprague in April 2023.Court heard Wednesday Hilario Pimentel admitted to police he’d transported people in multiple occasions.Gray said the five people who were in the van were wearing multiple layers of clothing, with several coats and water bottles also on the car. Hilario Pimentel said in a message to one person they would have to walk for an hour and a half once near the border, but that it would be safe.”In this province, we haven’t lost the memory of the Patel family,” Gray said. The Indian family of four froze to death while trying to cross from Manitoba into the U.S. on Jan. 19, 2022. A Minnesota jury convicted two men on human smuggling charges in that case late last year. Another man accused by Indian police of being part of the operation was arrested on a U.S. extradition warrant in September.Hilario Pimentel’s actions were “exceedingly dangerous,” Gray said.Took on smuggling because of threats: defenceDefence attorney Brett Gladstone said his client came to Canada from Mexico about three years ago on the advice of an acquaintance who seemed to be doing well in the country and made “all kinds of promises” about helping him. Gladstone said Hilario Pimentel at first took any temporary job he could, but the offers dried up. He later learned his acquaintance had been arrested in the U.S.”That’s when the calls started,” Gladstone said.The lawyer said people who claimed they were owed money by Hilario Pimentel’s acquaintance wanted him to pay, and made threats to force him into the smuggling operation.Gladstone said they sent Hilario Pimentel pictures of his family in Mexico, leaving him with no good options.”It’s not easy to label a person as being criminal for making the choice he did,” Gladstone said. “To be clear, his actions were against the law. He accepts that.… Love for his family is the main focal point of making this decision, but money was a factor too. Those things are deeply connected.”Gladstone said Hilario Pimentel’s arrest last year left him with no way to support his family, putting them in a difficult financial position. The man began crying when his lawyer brought up his children.”I accept it was my error. My mistake,” he told the judge through an interpreter. “I just want to go home. My family needs me. I’m very sorry.”Provincial court Justice Wanda Garreck said while she understood the man’s circumstances in Mexico, there are many families across the world in a similar position.”This kind of activity is not going to change that. It’s only going to make it worse,” she said. Garreck said the sentencing should send a clear message to anyone who decides to engage in this activity in the country.With credit for time already in custody, Hilario Pimentel will have to spend about five months in prison. The Crown said he will likely be deported after he’s done with his sentencing.ABOUT THE AUTHORArturo Chang is a reporter with CBC Manitoba. Before that, he worked for CBC P.E.I. and BNN Bloomberg. You can reach him at arturo.chang@cbc.ca.
Human smuggler arrested during traffic stop in Morden, Man., pleads guilty
