Quebec gun runner caught with 59 firearms sentenced to 11 years

A Quebec man was sentenced to 11 years in prison after he was caught smuggling 59 contraband guns across the St. Lawrence River in a crossborder operation that was busted in 2021, when a concerned Cornwall, Ont., resident witnessed the “brazen” daytime handoff.

Inti Falero-delgado pleaded guilty in 2023 to importing illegal firearms — which included 53 handguns and six modified Ar-15-style assault rifles with the serial numbers removed — that were purchased in the United States and were headed for the Canadian black market.

The gun-runners’ handoff on Nov. 26, 2021, was captured by a security camera mounted on a private boathouse on Farlinger Drive in South Glengarry, a riverfront residential street on the outskirts of Cornwall in an area long known as a popular area for smugglers, according to an agreed statement of facts filed in Cornwall court.

A concerned resident alerted police after seeing Falero-delgado on the private property around 3 p.m. that day, walking through a line of cedar trees to the shoreline, where he was met by a small power boat with an overlarge engine.

Falero-delgado collected three duffel bags that had been tossed onto shore by two unidentified men onboard before the bootleggers’ boat took off.

Falero-delgado was seen making several trips to load the bags into a car that was waiting for him.

Police with the Integrated RCMP Cornwall Border Integrity Team arrested Falerodelgado and his driver in a roadside stop a short time later and seized the three duffel bags containing the 59 contraband firearms and 80 prohibited high-capacity magazines.

Falero-delgado was also caught carrying $4,000 Cdn. and one U.S. $20 bill.

“The sheer number of weapons is staggering,” Ontario Court Justice Deborah Anne Kinsella said in her sentencing decision.