CBSA officers found overseas travel documents in vehicle carrying Nigerians

A Canada Border Services Agency intelligence officer testified Wednesday that three passengers in a vehicle - driven by Tamba Gbamanja - that was pulled over at the Intenational Bridge two years ago "seemed very nervous" when he interviewed them.

Thomas Kommusar said he felt the two women didn't give truthful answers to his questions and he suspected they weren't the people on the Canadian passports they were carrying.

The third person, a man, wrote down a different name than was on the passport he had when asked for more identification, he told Ontario Court Justice John Condon.

Gbamanja is accused of human smuggling offences for trying to bring three Nigerian nationals into Canada on April 15, 2017.

The 31-year-old Toronto man has pleaded not guilty to two charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Kommusar said when he spoke with the accused, Gbamanja indicated he had travelled to Sault Ste. Marie with another man in a rented car, and was going to be paid $500 for picking up the passengers in the United States

The 16-year CBSA officer said Gbamanja answered his questions.

When defence counsel Katie Scott asked if her client was nervous, he replied "in a way he was.

"He kept saying 'I wouldn't do something like that.'" 

On the third day of Gbamanja's trial, the court also heard from another border services officer who was involved in the investigation.

Nicholas Jobst, who was stationed in the secondary inspection area that night, did the initial search of the vehicle.

"The vehicle was fairly empty," he said. "It was packed fairly light for that number of travellers."

He said he found various things, including wallets, purses, American and Nigerian currency and evidence of air travel, but didn't seize anything.

Federal prosecutor Narissa Somji showed him a number of items seized by another officer.

Jobst said he was was "pretty sure" he had seen them before since they were the type of items he was finding in the van.

He explained that he remembered the multiple airline tickets and boarding passes.

One of the items indicated someone had travelled from Lagos, Nigeria to Amsterdam and then to Houston, Texas. 

There was no name or date on it, Jobst noted.

Another ticket showed one of the women had flown from Houston to Chicago on April 13, and a boarding pass indicated she had then travelled to Detroit on the same date, the 16-year officer told the court.

Scott pointed out that his one-page note about the incident didn't mention the vehicle search, the items he saw or where he found them.

"I didn't find any reason to take notes," Jobst said, indicating this was the first such charge he had been involved with.

The court also heard from U.S. Border Patrol Agent Colin Parks, who along with his partner, interviewed a Nigerian man and woman on April 16.

"We interviewed the two subjects for approximately four hours."

An intelligence intelligence officer, who works in Sault, Mich., he said he had been told the pair had been arrested.

"My job was to interview them," Parks said.

"We were just trying to gather more information, if there were any other individuals  or a pipeline."

EDITOR'S NOTE: SooToday does not permit comments on court stories