Minnesota: Two men face prison sentence for human smuggling after an Indian couple and their 2 children die on the US-Canada border

Two men are set to face prison sentence in Minnesota on 28th May on charges of human smuggling for their roles in what prosecutors described as an international conspiracy, reported Associated Press. The development transpired more than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while attempting to enter the United States along a remote portion of the Canadian border in a blizzard.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, the ringleader has been recommended by federal prosecutors to serve roughly 20 years in prison while Steve Anthony Shand, the driver who was supposed to pick up the family to spend nearly 11 years behind bars. US District Judge John Tunheim, who wrote last month that “this was not a close case,” rejected to overturn the guilty verdicts and will now decide the prison terms.

The two men were prosecuted and found guilty on four charges each last November in the city of Fergus Falls in northwest Minnesota, where Tunheim would deliver the penalties at the federal courthouse.

During the trial, prosecutors stated that Shand, a Florida-based US citizen and Patel, an Indian national who they asserted went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” were involved in a complex illegal arrangement that transported dozens of individuals from India to Canada on student visas before smuggling them across the US border.

McBride remarked, “Mr. Patel has never shown an ounce of remorse. Even today, he continues to deny he is the ‘Dirty Harry’ that worked with Mr. Shand on this smuggling venture – despite substantial evidence to the contrary and counsel for his co-defendant identifying him as such at trial.”

“Even as this family wandered through the blizzard at 1:00 am, searching for Mr. Shand’s van, he was focused on one thing, which he texted Mr. Patel: ‘We not losing any money.’ Worse, when Customs and Border Patrol arrested Mr. Shand sitting in a mostly unoccupied 15-passenger van, he denied others were out in the snow, leaving them to freeze without aid,” McBride added.

For his crimes, prosecutors sought a sentence of 19 years and 7 months for Patel, which is at the highest end of the range suggested by federal sentencing guidelines. They requested a prison term of 10 years and 10 months for Shand, which falls within the range of his individual guidelines.

Patel’s lawyers failed to submit a recommended sentence by 27th May, claiming that there was not enough evidence. For his intended appeal, however, they did ask for a government-funded lawyer. Patel has been incarcerated since his February 2024 arrest at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport where he declared in the application that he did not have assets and income.

While Shand awaits punishment, he has been at large. His attorney argued that the government’s proposed sentence was “unduly punitive” and only asked for 27 months. Shand has “a level of culpability,” according to his lawyer, federal counsel Aaron Morrison but he maintained that his role was limited and that he was only a taxi driver who needed money to feed his wife and six kids.

Background of the case

The prosecutors mentioned that the victims, 39-year-old Jagdish Patel, his wife, Vaishaliben in her mid-30s, their 3-year-old son Dharmik and 11-year-old daughter Vihangi, froze to death. The family was from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat. According to local news accounts, the couple worked as teachers in school. On 19th January 2022, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police discovered their bodies just north of the Manitoba-Minnesola boundary.

According to prosecutor Michael McBride, the father passed away while attempting to use a frozen glove to protect his son’s face from a “blistering wind.” According to him, their mother “died slumped against a chain-link fence she must have thought salvation lay behind.” Vihangi was dressed in “ill-fitting boots and gloves.” The wind chill that morning was -36 degrees Fahrenheit (-38 degrees Celsius), according to a local weather station.

Only two of their group reached Shand’s vehicle which was stranded in the snow on the Minnesota side while the other seven people made it through the foot crossing. One survivor had to be airlifted to a hospital due to severe cold and frostbite. Another survivor disclosed that prior to coming to Canada, he had never seen snow. The person informed the jury that the smugglers were the ones who handed them the substandard winter attire.

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