A husband and wife have pleaded guilty in federal court to transporting illegal aliens by boat onto Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Timothy Scott Belcher, 56, and Georgina Belcher, 63, both of Jacksonville, North Carolina, pleaded guilty on Aug. 24 to “bringing in and harboring certain aliens.” They face the possibility of a prison sentence of not more than five years, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement.

Sometime around May 1, 2020, the couple brought three foreign nationals living illegally in the United States onto the base by bypassing the base gate and taking them from Jacksonville, North Carolina, to a boat dock on base, according to court documents.

Neither the release nor court documents indicate if the foreign nationals allegedly living illegally in the United States were apprehended or faced punishment.

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The three illegal aliens were working for a drywall company, which was contracted with the U.S. military and owned by Georgina Belcher.

“The Nation’s critical infrastructure provides the essential services that underpin American society,” federal prosecutor G. Norman Acker III said in a statement. “Proactive and coordinated efforts are necessary to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure – including our Military Bases, Airports, and other areas that are vital to public confidence and the Nation’s safety,”

The couple was charged on July 9, according to court records. The court ordered that the couple be released pending sentencing. The sentencing date was not listed in court records.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.

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