Two men were convicted on Friday, Nov. 22, on charges related to human smuggling for their involvement in an international operation that led to the deaths of a family of Indian migrants who froze while trying to cross the U.S.-Canada border during a 2022 blizzard.
Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national who prosecutors say went by the alias "Dirty Harry," and Steve Shand, 50, a Florida-based American, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that has brought increasing numbers of Indians into the U.S., prosecutors said.
They were each convicted on four counts related to human smuggling, including conspiracy to bring migrants into the country illegally.
'Profit and Greed over Humanity'
"This trial exposed the unthinkable cruelty of human smuggling and of those criminal organizations that value profit and greed over humanity," Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andy Luger said.
"To earn a few thousand dollars, these traffickers put men, women and children in extraordinary peril leading to the horrific and tragic deaths of an entire family. Because of this unimaginable greed, a father, a mother and two children froze to death in sub-zero temperatures on the Minnesota-Canadian border," Luger added.
The most serious counts carry maximum sentences of up to 20 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office told The Associated Press before the trial. However, federal sentencing guidelines rely on complicated formulas. Luger said Friday that various factors will be considered in determining what sentences prosecutors will recommend.
The Family was Trying to Cross the Border into Minnesota Along with 7 Others, Became Separated from the Group After Walking 11 Hours
Federal prosecutors said 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishali, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, froze to death Jan. 19, 2022, while trying to cross the border into Minnesota in a scheme Patel and Shand organized.
Prosecutors said Patel coordinated the operation while Shand was a driver. Shand was to pick up 11 Indian migrants on the Minnesota side of the border, prosecutors said. Only seven survived the foot crossing. The surviving members of the group told investigators "they had walked across the border expecting to be picked up by someone," and that they had been walking for 11 hours."
One of the members of the group said that he was carrying a backpack containing diapers, clothes and toys, for a family of four Indian nationals who had been separated from the group overnight, prosecutors said. Canadian authorities found the Patel family later that morning, dead from the cold.
Migrants Would Pay Smugglers $100K to Get Them From India to the US
The trial included an inside account of how the international smuggling ring allegedly works and who it targets. One of the witnesses that testified against Shand and Patel said he made over $400,000 smuggling over 500 people through the same network that included Patel and Shand.
Singh said most of the people he smuggled came from Gujarat state. He said the migrants would often pay smugglers about $100,000 to get them from India to the U.S., in the hopes of a better life. Singh said the smugglers would run their finances through "hawala," an informal money transfer system that relies on trust.
