FERGUS FALLS, Minn.—A jury found two men guilty on Friday of human smuggling charges for their involvement in a global operation that killed a family of Indian migrants who froze while attempting to cross the border between Canada and the United States during a 2022 blizzard.
Prosecutors claim that Steve Shand, 50, an American from Florida, and Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national who went by the pseudonym Dirty Harry, were involved in a complex unlawful scheme that has resulted in an increase in the number of Indians entering the United States.
Each of them was found guilty on four charges of human smuggling, including conspiring to illegally enter the nation with migrants.
According to Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andy Luger, this trial revealed the unspeakable brutality of human smuggling and of those criminal organizations who prioritize greed and profit above people.
These traffickers put men, women, and children in extreme danger in order to get a few thousand dollars, which results in the terrible and tragic deaths of a whole family. “A father, a mother, and two children froze to death in sub-zero temperatures on the Minnesota-Canadian border because of this unthinkable greed,” Luger continued.
Prior to the trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office informed The Associated Press that the most serious counts carried maximum punishments of up to 20 years in prison. Federal sentencing standards, however, are based on intricate formulae. Luger stated on Friday that prosecutors will take into account a number of considerations when recommending punishments.
Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their 3-year-old son, Dharmik, froze to death on January 19, 2022, while attempting to cross the border into Minnesota as part of a plot that Patel and Shand orchestrated, according to federal authorities. Harshkumar Patel was not related to the victims, and Patel is a common Indian last name.
According to local news accounts, the pair worked as instructors. The family lived in a clean, two-story home with a front patio and a large veranda, and they were rather well off by local standards.
According to experts, political repression and the broken American immigration system, which may take years or even decades to legally negotiate, are the main causes of illegal immigration from India. It has a lot to do with economics and how, in the West, even low-paying employment can inspire aspirations for a better life.
An alleged participant in the smuggling ring, a survivor of the perilous voyage across the northern border, border patrol officials, and forensic specialists testified at the federal trial in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, prior to the jury’s conviction on Friday.
Defense lawyers squared off against one another, with Shand’s camp claiming that Patel had unintentionally enlisted him in the plot.
According to The Canadian Press, Patel’s attorneys claimed that their client had been misdiagnosed. According to them, Patel’s purported moniker, Dirty Hary, which was discovered on Shand’s phone, is not the same person. They stated that Shand was not connected to the crime based on bank records or witness accounts from people who saw him close to the border.
According to the prosecution, Shand served as a driver while Patel oversaw the operation. Prosecutors say Shand was scheduled to pick up 11 Indian migrants on the Minnesota side of the border. Seven people made it via the foot crossing. Later that morning, the Patel family was discovered dead from the cold by Canadian officials.
An inside account of the alleged operations and aims of the worldwide smuggling organization was presented throughout the trial.
Using the same network that includes Patel and Shand, 51-year-old Rajinder Singh claimed that he smuggled over 500 persons and earned over $400,000. According to Singh, the majority of the individuals he transported were from Gujarat state. He claimed that the migrants frequently paid smugglers approximately $100,000 to be transported from India to the United States, where they would work at low-paying jobs in American cities to settle their debts. According to Singh, the smugglers would use hawala, an unofficial, trust-based money transfer mechanism, to manage their cash.
Although the illegal immigration pipeline from India has been there for a while, it has grown significantly along the U.S.-Canada border. In the year ending September 30, the U.S. Border Patrol made more than 14,000 arrests of Indians on the Canadian border, accounting for 60% of all arrests along the border and more than ten times the number made two years prior.
More than 725,000 Indians were estimated by the Pew Research Center to be unlawfully residing in the United States by 2022, second only to Mexicans and El Salvadorans.
According to Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Jamie Holt, the case serves as a sobering reminder of the harsh reality that victims of people smuggling must contend with.
According to Holt, human smuggling is a horrible crime that preys on the weakest members of society, taking advantage of their despair and aspirations for a better life. This family has gone through unspeakable pain, and it is our responsibility to make sure that such crimes are dealt with severely by the law.
Kevin Paul, a juror from Clearwater, Minnesota, later informed reporters that the jurors found it difficult to view the family’s body photos. He claimed to have grown up in North Dakota and to be aware of the types of circumstances that resulted in their demise.
Paul commented, It’s quite terrible. The things they had to do in the middle of nowhere were beyond my comprehension.
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