Expand / Collapse search
☰

2 men convicted in human smuggling trial after Indian family's death near Canada border

By Michael Goldberg and Mark Vancleave
Published  November 22, 2024 12:48pm CST
Crime and Public Safety
Associated Press
article

A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands along the boundary marker cut into the forest marking the line between Canadian territory on the right and the United States March 23, 2006 near Beecher Falls, Vermont. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

The Brief

    • Two men have been convicted on charges related to human smuggling after an Indian family froze to death near the Canada-U.S. border in 2022.
    • Steve Shand and Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel were accused of being a part of a human smuggling operation linked to a growing number of undocumented Indians living in the U.S.

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) - A jury convicted two men of charges related to human smuggling for their roles in an international operation that led to the deaths of a family of Indian migrants who froze while trying to cross the Canada-U.S. border during a 2022 blizzard, according to a prosecution spokesperson.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national who prosecutors say went by the alias "Dirty Harry," and Steve Shand, 50, an American from Florida, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that has brought increasing numbers of Indians into the U.S, prosecutors said.

Federal prosecutors said 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishaliben, 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 organized by Patel and Shand. Patel is a common Indian surname, and the victims were not related to Harshkumar Patel.

Before the jury’s conviction on Friday, the federal trial in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, saw testimony from an alleged participant in the smuggling ring, a survivor of the treacherous journey across the northern border, border patrol agents and forensic experts.

Defense attorneys were pitted against each other, with Shand’s team arguing that he was unwittingly roped into the scheme by Patel. Patel’s lawyers, The Canadian Press reported, said their client had been misidentified. They said "Dirty Hary," the alleged nickname for Patel found in Shand’s phone, is a different person. Bank records and witness testimony from those who encountered Shand near the border don’t tie him to the crime, they added.

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 Canadian border, prosecutors said. Only seven survived the foot crossing. Canadian authorities found two parents and their young children later that morning, dead from the cold.