US court orders imprisonment of human smugglers involved in tragic deaths of 4 Indian nationals

WASHINGTON: The District of Minnesota on Wednesday (local time) sentenced two men for their roles in an international human smuggling conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of four Indian nationals, including a three-year-old and an 11-year-old child, in January 2022, according to US Department of Justice press release.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel (29), an Indian national formerly of Florida, was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison for his role in the conspiracy. Patel will be removed from the United States following his sentence. His co-conspirator, Steve Anthony Shand (50) of Florida, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison followed by two years of supervised release.

“Patel and Shand endangered thousands of lives for their personal enrichment and are responsible for the deaths of two small children who froze to death on their watch,” said Matthew R Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

“This case demonstrates the grave danger associated with human smuggling operations. I thank the prosecutors and our law enforcement partners in the US and in Canada who are working to secure the northern border and end the perilous smuggling of aliens into the United States”.

According to evidence presented at trial, Patel and Shand were part of a large-scale human-smuggling operation that brought Indian nationals to Canada on fraudulent student visas and then smuggled them into the United States across the northern border.

Patel, along with other co-conspirators, organised the logistics of smuggling aliens from Manitoba, Canada, into the United States, and Shand picked up the aliens just south of the Canadian border and drove them to Chicago. Both men were paid for their roles in the conspiracy and disregarded the risks posed to the aliens by the cold weather at the northern border.

The US Department of Justice cited the evidence at trial, “the going rate to be smuggled from India through Canada into the United States was USD 100,000”.

“Every time I think about this case, I think about this family–including two beautiful little children–who the defendants left to freeze to death in a blizzard,” said Acting US Attorney Lisa D Kirkpatrick for the District of Minnesota. “As we’ve seen time and time again, human traffickers care nothing for humanity. I am proud of the work of our law enforcement partners in holding these defendants accountable for their unspeakable crimes.”

On January 18 and 19, 2022, Patel and Shand, despite repeated warnings about the dangers, organised the smuggling of 11 aliens from Canada into the United States on foot in severe winter weather conditions, including a family of four — two adults, and their 11-year-old daughter and three-year-old son.

The release added that on the evening of January 18, Shand sent Patel a screenshot with a blizzard alert warning of wind gusts as high as 50 mph and wind chill temperatures below -45 degrees.

The recorded wind chill temperature on the morning of January 19 was -36 degrees. In the early morning hours of January 19, during blizzard conditions in Minnesota, a US Border Patrol agent found Shand’s van stuck in the snow and arrested Shand along with two aliens.

Contrary to Shand’s statement to law enforcement that there were no other aliens out in the snow, five more aliens emerged from the fields, including one suffering hypothermia with an internal temperature below 90 degrees, who was airlifted to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Later that day, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) found the dead bodies of the family of four frozen in an isolated area on the Canadian side of the international border. The boy was wrapped in a blanket with his father’s frozen glove covering his face. As proven at trial, Patel and Shand had been paid to smuggle the family into the United States, read the release.

In November 2024, a federal jury convicted both defendants of conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy, conspiracy to transport aliens within the United States causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy, attempted transportation of aliens for commercial advantage or private financial gain, and aiding and abetting the attempted transportation of aliens, as per the US department of Justice.

“Today’s sentencing marks a crucial moment of accountability in a case that revealed the harrowing realities of human smuggling,” said Special Agent in Charge Jamie Holt of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) St. Paul.

“The callous disregard for life that led to the tragic deaths of an entire family will not be forgotten. At HSI, we remain steadfast in working with our partners across borders to dismantle criminal smuggling networks, bring justice to those responsible, and safeguard human dignity.”

HSI and US Customs and Border Protection conducted the investigation. The RCMP and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance.

This case was also supported by the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and HSI. The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks or grave humanitarian concerns.

ECT has dedicated investigative, intelligence, and prosecutorial resources. ECT coordinates with and receives assistance from other US government agencies and foreign law enforcement authorities.

Notably, trial attorney Ryan Lipes of the Criminal Division’s HRSP and Assistant US Attorney Michael P. McBride of the District of Minnesota prosecuted the case. (ANI)