2 human traffickers sentenced in freezing deaths of 4 members of Indian family at US-Canada border

TWO human traffickers were sentenced in the US on Wednesday (28) for their roles in a smuggling operation that resulted in the deaths of four Indian nationals in January 2022, including a three-year-old and an 11-year-old, the US Department of Justice said.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national from Florida, was sentenced to over 10 years in prison for organizing logistics and co-conspirator Steve Anthony Shand, 50, from Daytona in Florida, was sentenced to over six years for picking up migrants in the United States.

A jury convicted the duo for their work in a "large-scale human smuggling operation that brought Indian nationals to Canada on fraudulent student visas and then smuggled them into the United States," justice officials said.

In January 2022, amid severe weather, Patel and Shand attempted to smuggle 11 Indian nationals from Canada into the United States on foot, the DOJ said, adding the recorded wind chill temperature was -37.8 degrees Celsius (-36 degrees Fahrenheit).

A US Border Patrol agent found Shand's van stuck in the Minnesota snow, where Shand claimed there were no other people stranded out in the cold.

But five more people emerged from the fields, including one who was airlifted to a hospital for lifesaving care.

Shand was arrested along with two migrants.

But the family of four was not found until the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their frozen bodies in an isolated area near Emerson, Manitoba, approximately 12 meters from the Canada-US border.

They were identified as Jagdish Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Patel, 37, Vihangi Patel, 11 and Dharmik Patel, 3.

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"The boy was wrapped in a blanket with his father's frozen glove covering his face," the DOJ said.

"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.

Ramanlal Patel was arrested by authorities from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in 2024 and he will be deported from the US following his sentence.

The Justice Department statement said Patel organized the logistics of smuggling individuals from Manitoba, Canada, into the United States, with other co-conspirators, and Shand picked them up just south of the Canadian border in the US and drove them to Chicago.

Both men were paid for their roles in the conspiracy and disregarded the risks posed to the persons by the cold weather at the northern border.

According to evidence at trial, the going rate to be smuggled from India through Canada into the United States was $100,000.

The migrants were compelled to work at Indian restaurants for substandard wages while repaying their debts to the smugglers.