24-year-old Chetan Kumar charged with assaulting border officer while smuggling five migrants across Canada-US border

A 24-year-old Brampton man accused of smuggling migrants across Canada-US border is facing multiple criminal charges after an RCMP officer was injured while attempting to stop his vehicle in Quebec’s Montérégie region.The accused, Chetan Kumar, was arrested following an incident earlier this month after authorities launched a search operation near Noyan, close to the international border.According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the operation began after information was received US Border Patrol (USBP) about five people who had crossed into Canada illegally.“On the night of June 2, 2026, a patrol officer from the Champlain Detachment’s Integrated Border Enforcement Team (IBET) was injured while intercepting a vehicle belonging to an alleged migrant smuggler,” the RCMP stated in a release on Wednesday.They added: “Following a tip from the United States Border Patrol (USBP), a search operation was launched in the Noyan area in Montérégie to locate five individuals who had just crossed the border illegally.”When an IBET officer intercepted Kumar’s vehicle, he refused to stop and deliberately drove into the door of the police vehicle. The collision injured the officer before the suspect fled the scene.“The driver allegedly failed to stop and deliberately rammed the door of the police vehicle, injuring the officer in the process. The driver then fled the scene,” the RCMP said.Authorities later arrested Kumar and took the five migrants into custody. The migrants were detained under provisions of the Customs Act before being handed over to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).Kumar has been charged with two counts of assaulting a peace officer, dangerous operation of a conveyance, and failure to stop following an accident. In a separate RCMP account of the case, the charges were also described as assaulting a peace officer, dangerous operation and failure to stop after an accident.The Brampton resident remains in custody. “Human smuggling is a criminal enterprise that spans the globe,” the RCMP said.They added: “Smugglers facilitate the entry of people into Canada or the United States by illegal means, while making a profit from them. By charging their passengers large sums of money to transport them, human smugglers have turned illegal migration into a lucrative business.”