The Golden Road between the United States and Canada (Photo: Chronicle 5 WCVB)
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The Golden Road between the United States and Canada (Photo: Chronicle 5 WCVB)
US Border Patrol arrested four British citizens after they entered the United States in a remote area of Maine from Canada. They claimed to be hikers and told police they were not aware they were entering the United States.
The incident occurred on April 3, and now they have all been charged with one count of entry without search, a misdemeanor offense that carries a maximum penalty of six months in federal prison and a $5,000 fine. All four pleaded not guilty.The names of the four British citizens sparked great controversy on the Internet, as none of Ali Muhammad Ali Abdullah, Hamid Muhammad Naji, Ibrahim Ayoub Khan, and Muhammad Sultan Saleh were of British origin.
Commentator Drew Pavlou wrote: “Britain really needs to resolve this issue because the fact that these people hold British passports is an absolute disaster for national security in the West.”
GoPro footage shows them celebrating as they enter the United States
Contrary to their claims that they were just hitchhikers and did not understand that they were on American soil, they were captured in GoPro footage celebrating the moment they stepped on American soil. “I can confirm that you are now on American soil,” Saleh said, as recorded in the footage.
“Am I on American soil?” Abdullah asked in disbelief, and Saleh showed him his phone screen containing the GPS coordinates. “We are now in the United States,” Saleh said. “We just made it, baby.” How were they caught?Two maple sugar workers heading to Canada saw these four men, whom they described as “Medley Itzern,” walking south on the so-called Golden Road. This Golden Road is a 96-mile unpaved road in Maine that extends to the Quebec border.
The workers found them suspicious and notified a CBP officer.Later, it turned out that these four men were supposed to be picked up by two men who were also spotted on the Golden Road. CBP officers followed leads and found all of them — the four men who claimed to be British citizens and the two men they were supposed to pick up — who claimed to be American citizens. The four men told agents they did not realize they had entered the US, before agents found the damning GoPro footage as well as searches allegedly made by Saleh that day, including “Bangor from my location”, “Boston from Bangor”, “New York from Boston”.
