Men Are Charged With Smuggling An Indian Family Into Canada, Where They Froze to Death, Deny Guilt

A man entered a not-guilty plea to human smuggling on Wednesday. He is suspected of aiding in the smuggling of individuals from the state of Minnesota from the US into Canada, including four members of an Indian family from Gujarat who froze to death in 2022.

28-year-old Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel filed his plea in a short teleconference with Duluth, Minnesota, US Magistrate Judge Leo Brisbois. According to US officials, Patel engaged 49-year-old Steven Shand to transport the Indian nationals from the Canadian border to the Chicago region.

During the same hearing, Shand, a resident of Deltona, Florida, entered a not guilty plea to four charges included in a revised indictment against them that was made public last week. Two years ago, Shand was taken into custody and accused of smuggling people. He is still free in his own right.

This occurs as Patel—also known as “Dirty Harry”—remains detained by the federal government. Patel was reportedly turned down for a US visa at least five times, including four times at US consulates in India and one time at the US consulate in Ottawa, Canada, according to a court filing. The agent said that he is in the US illegally. Only after Patel’s arrest in Chicago this month on a previously secret warrant issued in September of last year did his identity become public.

Unsealed court documents link Patel to a human trafficking organization situated in Gujarat, a state in northwest India. It is said that the gang would get student visas for Indian citizens and then transfer them to Canada and the Chicago region. According to court records, the migrants would labor in Indian restaurants for inadequate pay while they settled debts owed to the traffickers.

According to US prosecutors, on January 19, 2022, Shand was operating a leased 15-passenger van when it was pulled over by the US Border Patrol in Minnesota, which is located just south of the Canadian border. Two Indians from Gujarat who had entered the US illegally were found inside the vehicle, and five others were seen strolling about. They told police they had been trekking in temperatures far below zero Fahrenheit (-34 Celsius) for almost 11 hours, according to court filings. A hospital was consulted for serious injuries sustained from the cold.

According to a member of the group, he paid around $87,000 to be smuggled into the United States. In addition, he packed a diaper and kid-sized clothing in his bag, although the group didn’t include any kids. The guy claimed to the police that he was transporting the supplies for a family of four, including a little kid, who had all drifted apart from him during the night. The four bodies were discovered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police later that day in the vicinity of Emerson, Manitoba, within ten meters from the border.

Shand reportedly instructed Patel to “make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please” in a series of WhatsApp chats. “Done,” Patel called back. Shand then said, “We’re not losing any money.” The dead, who were from the Gujarati hamlet of Dingucha, were named as 39-year-old Jagdish Patel, his 34-year-old wife Vaishaliben, their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi, and their 3-year-old son Dharmik. According to their family, Jagdish Patel and his spouse were educated and had experience working as teachers, but they left India in search of a better life in the US.

The Mounted Police have said that in addition to the extreme cold, the victims had to deal with wide, open fields, big snowdrifts, and total darkness. Despite their winter attire, it was insufficient to rescue them. Shand told investigators he first encountered Harshkumar Patel, better known by the moniker “Dirty Harry,” at a gambling business Patel controlled in Orange City, Florida, according to a court document that was made public last month.

Shand said that Patel had first attempted to enlist him in order to pick up Indian people who were entering New York illegally over the US-Canada border. Though he promised to pick up others in Minnesota, Shand claimed he rejected them. Shand said that for five visits to the border in December 2021 and January 2022, Patel paid him a total of around $25,000. He claimed to have dropped off his clients at a hotel in a Chicago suburb, an Indian store in Chicago, and a home in an affluent neighborhood.