FERGUS FALLS, Minn. — A federal jury has found two defendants guilty on all counts for their roles in a human smuggling operation after an Indian National couple and their two children froze to death near the border between Minnesota and Canada in 2022.
Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel - an experienced smuggler who went by the alias "Dirty Harry" - and Steve Shand were each charged with four counts related to a human smuggling operation that was trying to usher 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik from Canada into the U.S., where they planned to start a new life.
Instead, the Patels were found frozen to death in a desolate field on Jan. 19, 2022.
A note: Patel is a common surname in India, and the victims are not related to the man now convicted for his role in their deaths.
“This trial exposed the unthinkable cruelty of human smuggling and of those criminal organizations that value profit and greed over humanity,” said Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andy Luger following the verdicts.
Prosecutors accused Patel and Shand of being a part of a criminal smuggling network stretching from India to Canada, that charged tens of thousands of dollars to move people from Canada across the border into the U.S. They said Patel recruited Shand at a casino near their homes in Deltona, Florida to pick up the migrants in a van after they had crossed the border from Canada into Minnesota on foot.
Instead, prosecutors say, the victims and seven others struggled to navigate a remote stretch of Canada during a night where windchills reached -36 Fahrenheit, wandering vast farm fields and attempting to navigate bulky snowdrifts.
Sadly, the Patel family never made it to Shand and the waiting van: Canadian authorities found all four frozen to death, with father Jagdish Patel holding his three-year-old son in his arms.
The federal trial in Fergus Falls saw testimony from an alleged participant in the smuggling ring, a survivor of the treacherous journey across the northern border, border patrol agents and forensic experts.
Yash Patel, 23, testified through an interpreter that he got separated from the Patel family and walked alone for five or six hours until he found a van waiting for him, The Canadian Press reported. Prosecutors say that van was driven by Steve Shand.
Defense attorneys were pitted against each other, with Shand’s team arguing that he was unwittingly roped into the scheme by Patel. Patel’s lawyers, The Canadian Press reported, insisted their client had been misidentified. They said “Dirty Hary,” the alleged nickname for Patel found in Shand’s phone, is a different person.
Bank records and witness testimony from those who encountered Shand near the border don’t tie him to the crime, they added.