Jury finds human smugglers guilty in Indian family’s death at U.S.-Canada border

iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-

A federal jury in the District of Minnesota convicted two men on November 22, 2024, for their roles in a human smuggling venture that resulted in the deaths of a family of four, including two children, from Gujarat, India. The victims were identified as 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishaliben, and their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, who died on January 19, 2022.

According to evidence presented at trial, between December 12, 2021, and January 19, 2022, Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, also known as Dirty Harry and Harry Patel, and Steve Anthony Shand, 50, conspired to smuggle dozens of migrants across the border of Canada and into the United States.

Patel and Shand were part of a large-scale human-smuggling operation that brought Indian nationals to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them into the United States. The defendants’ roles in the smuggling operation included the coordination and transportation of people from Manitoba, Canada, into the United States.

Specifically, Patel worked with co-conspirators in Canada to organize the logistics of smuggling trips, while Shand was instructed when and where to pick up migrants just south of the Canadian border in the United States. He then drove them to Chicago. They were paid for their roles in the conspiracy and disregarded the risks posed by the cold weather at the northern border.

According to evidence presented at trial, on Jan. 19, 2022, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents responded to a request for assistance from the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) based out of Pembina, North Dakota. USBP initiated a traffic stop on a white-colored, 15-passenger van that Shand was driving. The stop occurred less than one mile south of the U.S.-Canadian border in a rural area between the U.S. ports of entry located at Lancaster, Minnesota, and Pembina.

A short while later, law enforcement encountered five Indian nationals approximately a quarter mile south of the Canadian border walking in the direction of where Shand had just been arrested. They explained that they had walked across the border expecting to be picked up by someone. The group estimated they had been walking around for over seven hours.

One of the members of the group was in possession of a backpack that did not belong to him. He told officers that he was carrying the backpack for a family of four Indian nationals that had walked with his group but had become separated during the night. Temperatures that night had plummeted to 36 degrees below zero. The backpack contained children’s clothes, a diaper, toys, and some children’s medication.

That family was found dead a short time later. As proven at trial, later the same day, USBP received a report from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) that four bodies — two adults and two young children — were found frozen just inside the Canadian side of the international border. As proven at trial, Patel and Shand were paid to smuggle the family into the United States.

Following a five-day trial, the jury found Patel and Shand each guilty of four counts of human smuggling. The defendants face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the first and second counts and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the third and fourth counts. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger for the District of Minnesota; Special Agent in Charge Jamie Holt of the HSI St. Paul Field Office; and Chief Patrol Agent Scott D. Garrett of the USBP Grand Forks Sector made the announcement.

“First, I want to offer my condolences to the Patel family, their friends, and extended family for this tragedy,” Luger said. “This trial exposed the unthinkable cruelty of human smuggling and of those criminal organizations that value profit and greed over humanity.”

“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, mother and two children froze to death in sub-zero temperatures on the Minnesota-Canadian border.

“Our office prosecutes crimes every day, but what was revealed in this trial was far beyond even some of the most significant criminal behavior we have seen and we have addressed,” he said.

“The words ‘immoral depravity’ are the best that I have to describe the conduct that led to this terrible, terrible result. Nothing we can do will change that. We can and have brought justice to those responsible and for that I thank the tenacious work of all of the law enforcement officers and officials involved, as well as the talented and dedicated prosecution team from my office and the department of justice. I am proud of them and their work,” he added.

Holt said, “This case is a stark reminder of the horrific realities faced by victims of human smuggling. The tragic loss of a family, who endured unimaginable suffering at the hands of smugglers, underscored the urgent need of robust law enforcement and partnerships.”

HSI and USBP conducted the investigation. The RCMP and Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance.

Trial Attorney Ryan Lipes of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael McBride for the District of Minnesota are prosecuting the case.