The Golden Road between the United States and Canada (Photo: Chronicle 5 WCVB)
Four British citizens have been arrested by US Border Patrol after entering a remote region of Maine from Canada. They identified themselves as hikers and told police they had no idea they had entered the United States. The incident occurred on April 3, and now all of them have been charged with one count of entering the country without inspection, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in federal prison and a $5,000 fine. All four have pleaded not guilty.The names of the four British citizens have sparked a major debate online because none of Ali Mohammad Ali Abdullah, Hamid Mohammad Najib, Ibrahim Ayub Khan and Mohammad Sultan Saleh are British. Commentator Drew Pavlou wrote: “The UK really needs to address this issue because these people have British passports and it is an absolute disaster for Western national security.”
GoPro video shows them celebrating as they enter the U.S.
Contrary to their claims that they were just hikers and had no idea they were on American soil, GoPro footage captured the moment they celebrated setting foot on American soil. “I can confirm that you are on U.S. soil right now,” Saleh was recorded on the video saying.“Am I on American soil?” Abdullah asked in disbelief as Saleh showed him the phone screen with GPS coordinates. “Now we are in the United States,” Saleh said. “We just made it, baby.” How were they arrested?Two maple sugar workers traveling to Canada saw the four men, whom they called the Middle Eatsern, walking south on the so-called Golden Trail. The Golden Trail is a 96-mile unpaved road in Maine that stretches all the way to the Quebec border. Agents found them suspicious and alerted U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials.It was later discovered that the four men were supposed to have been picked up by two men who were also found on the Golden Road. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers followed leads and found all the people claiming to be U.S. citizens — four men claiming to be British nationals and the two men who were supposed to pick them up. The four men told agents they did not realize they had entered the United States, and agents later discovered shocking GoPro footage and searches Saleh allegedly conducted that day, including “from my location to Bangor,” “from Bangor to Boston,” and “from Boston to New York.”
