Jury convicts 2 men accused of smuggling family who froze to death at U.S., Canadian border
This combination image shows left to right; undated photo released by the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office shows Harshkumar Patel in Elk River, Minn., and undated photo released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows Steve Shand. (AP Photo)
A federal jury has convicted the two men who were charged in a human smuggling case that led to the deaths of an Indian family who froze while trying to cross the Canada-U.S. border during a 2022 blizzard.
The trial for 29-year-old Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, an Indian national who prosecutors say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” and 50-year-old Steve Shand, an American from Florida, began on Monday.
Both men faced four charges related to human smuggling. Prosecutors said the men were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that has been bringing increasing numbers of Indians into the U.S.
The trial saw testimony from an alleged participant in the smuggling ring that prosecutors said brought Indian nationals from Canada into the U.S. The jury also heard from a survivor of the treacherous journey across the northern border, border patrol agents and forensic experts.
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Defense attorneys were pitted against each other, with Shand’s team arguing that he was unwittingly roped into the scheme by Patel. Patel’s attorneys said the prosecution’s case was built on unreliable witness testimony and that their client came to America for a better life before being unjustly accused of crimes he didn’t commit.
Prosecutors said Patel was the coordinator of the operation while Shand was a driver. Shand was to pick up 11 Indian migrants on the Minnesota side of the Canadian border in January 2022, prosecutors said. Only seven survived the foot crossing. Canadian authorities found two parents and their young children later that morning, dead from the cold.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has reached out to the lawyers of the two men for comment on the conviction and will update this article if they respond.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.