Human smugglers convicted after Indian family freezes to death trying to illegally cross northern border

A pair of human smugglers were convicted this week in Minnesota, following the deaths of an Indian family, including two children, who froze during a blizzard in 2022 while attempting to illegally cross into the U.S. from Canada.

The jury in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, found Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, and Steve Shand, 50, guilty on four counts, including conspiracy to bring migrants into the country illegally.

Patel is an Indian national and Shand is a U.S. citizen from Florida. 

"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 in a statement. "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."

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Jagdish Patel, his wife, Vaishaliben, who were both in their 30s, and their children: daughter Vihangi, 11, and son Dharmik, 3, all froze to death in January 2022 while attempting to illegally cross into Minnesota via an operation coordinated by Harshkumar Patel and Shand. The family was not related to Harshkumar Patel. 

"It’s pretty brutal," juror Kevin Paul told reporters after the trial of the weather conditions where the family was trying to cross. "I couldn’t imagine having to do what they had to do out there in the middle of nowhere."

The family was among 11 migrants in the same group who made the treacherous crossing to Minnesota that January. After only seven made it across, the family was found dead the next day by Canadian authorities.  

"Human smuggling is a vile crime that preys on the most vulnerable, exploiting their desperation and dreams for a better life," Jamie Holt, a Special Agent with Homeland Security Investigations, said. "The suffering endured by this family is unimaginable and it is our duty to ensure that such atrocities are met with the full force of the law."

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Prosecutors said Patel, who was also known as "Dirty Harry," organized the scheme and Patel was the driver. Both men were involved in an international smuggling ring that help Indians illegally cross the border. 

Another human smuggler, who was part of the ring, testified during the trial that he had made more than $400,000 smuggling more than 500 Indian migrants across the U.S. border and that the migrants usually work low-wage jobs in the U.S. to pay off their debts to the smugglers, which can be as much as $100,000. 

The pair could face up to 20 years in prison, depending on the prosecutors’ recommendation. 

Shand’s defense team had claimed that he was an unwitting participant in the scheme, while Patel’s attorneys argued that the charges against him were a case of mistaken identity. 

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More than 14,000 Indian migrants were arrested at the Canadian border while attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally, in the year that ended on Sept. 30. 

It accounted for 60% of arrests along the border and has increased 10-fold in the last two years. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.