Danbury Woman Illegally Transported Migrants: Feds

DANBURY, CT — Federal law enforcement agents have accused a Danbury woman of transporting three migrants who entered the country illegally from Canada.

On Sunday evening, Border Patrol officers spotted three people on camera walking south from Canada near Goodall Road in Derby, VT.

Before they could stop the vehicle, the officers reported the vehicle turned on its lights and travelled slowly on Goodall Road. The vehicle, with Connecticut license plates, slowed and stopped in the location where the three people would have been likely to exit the woods, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont. The vehicle also blinked its lights and then accelerated quickly.

After the stop, Border Patrol agents identified Maria Constante-Zamora, 31, an Ecuadoran national living in Danbury, as the passenger in the vehicle.

Near where they had stopped the vehicle, the Border Patrol agents reported "three individuals standing on the side of the road. One of the individuals was clutching a tree and appeared to be in distress. The other two of the three subjects proceeded to run north toward Canada."

The officers rendered aid to the person who collapsed until EMS arrived and took them to North Country Hospital in Newport, VT. The person was pronounced dead at the hospital early Monday, according to the release. A cause of death has not been determined.

One of the pair who had fled back northward was identified as Oscar Soto-Acosta, was eventually apprehended, and has been detained as a material witness, according to federal officials.

Constante-Zamora currently faces up to five years of imprisonment if convicted.

The United States Attorney’s Office emphasizes that the charge against Constante-Zamora contained in the criminal complaint is an accusation only, and that the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.