On dirt roads in far northern Vermont, José Ignacio De La Cruz allegedly would meet subjects who had illegally crossed the Canadian border by foot and ferry them to a new life in the United States, federal prosecutors said this week.De La Cruz is a leader of Migrant Justice, the Vermont-based immigrant rights group behind a raucous protest in South Burlington earlier in March that devolved into a violent confrontation with federal immigration authorities.Now he is accused of engaging in “multi-year conspiracies” to smuggle undocumented people into the US and fraudulently acquire driver’s licenses for others.A federal grand jury returned a nine-count indictment last month charging De La Cruz, 30, of Burlington, and other unnamed co-conspirators with the crimes. He was arrested on his way to work Thursday and pleaded not guilty later that day in federal court in Burlington. He was ordered to be held at least until a hearing next week.Known as “Nacho,” De La Cruz is a former dairy worker and now a part-owner of a cooperative construction company. He has a 4-year-old son who is a US citizen.De La Cruz’s case first drew attention last June, when a Border Patrol officer pulled over a van he was driving in northern Vermont, less than one mile from the Canadian border, with his 18-year-old stepdaughter, Heidi Perez. Authorities later said they had been engaged in “suspicious border activity,” but the pair said they had been delivering food to migrant farmworkers. When De La Cruz refused to roll down a window more than a few inches or identify himself, a Border Patrol supervisor smashed the window in what supporters of De La Cruz and Perez called a “violent and unlawful arrest” resulting from racial profiling. Both are Mexican citizens who entered the US without permission.The Globe reported last July that, after detaining De La Cruz, authorities connected him with a failed attempt that April to help a Mexican woman, Yoselin Gonzalez Flores, cross the Canadian border into the US. She later made the trip but was caught, leading authorities to find text messages between her, De La Cruz, and a third person discussing the attempts.The episode first came to light when federal officials applied for a search warrant to access De La Cruz’s phone after the Border Patrol stop. He was not charged at the time, and he and Perez were subsequently released, but authorities said they later found “a plethora of messages implicating the Defendant” when they searched the phone.The new indictment spells out a broader set of allegations. In addition to the matter involving Gonzalez, federal authorities describe an incident in November 2023 in which De La Cruz allegedly arranged to pick up a person crossing illegally from Canada. Screenshots that authorities say were sent by a co-conspirator show the route the person planned to take over the border, through the forests and farmland of the town of Berkshire, one of the most remote parts of northern Vermont. De La Cruz allegedly replied with a screenshot showing where he intended to pick up the person. Federal prosecutors also allege De La Cruz fraudulently obtained Vermont driver’s privilege cards and learner’s permits for five people who lived out of state, each of whom paid him $500. In some cases, authorities said, he took online tests for the applicants.Migrant Justice successfully advocated for the creation of driver’s privilege cards in 2013 to allow dairy farmworkers to drive in the state, regardless of their immigration status. Vermont was among the first states to do so, and now close to 20 states offer similar cards.“These are serious criminal offenses,” First Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Ophardt said in a written statement. De La Cruz’s attorney, Barclay Johnson, did not respond to a request for comment. During a rally outside the federal courthouse Thursday, according to Seven Days, a Vermont newspaper, a Migrant Justice leader alleged De La Cruz’s arrest was an attempt to “scare people” and said the organization would stand by him. Paul Heintz can be reached at paul.heintz@globe.com. Follow him on X @paulheintz.