Indian sentenced in US for human trafficking, death of Gujarat family of 4

Four members of Patel family. Jagdish Patel (39), Vaishaliben (37) and their children aged 11 and 3. froze to death while crossing the Canadian border in 2022

A 29-year-old Indian man was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison by a US District Court in Minnesota on Thursday, following a jury trial, for his alleged role as a co-conspirator in an international human smuggling case in 2022.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and and Steve Anthony Shand were paid roughly $100,000 for smuggling migrants from India into America through Canada. (APS)

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, known as ‘Dirty Harry’, was convicted in the case involving the death of the four members of the Patel family in 2022. The family --- Jagdish Patel (39), Vaishaliben (37) and their children aged 11 and 3 --- froze to death while crossing the Canadian border. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their bodies just north of the Manitoba-Minnesota border on January 19, 2022.

Patel, convicted by a US court in November 2024, and another accused, Steve Anthony Shand, were paid around $100,000 for smuggling migrants from India into America through Canada. Shand was sentenced to six years and six months in prison. Meanwhile, Patel will be removed from the United States after completing his sentence.

“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 organised the logistics of smuggling aliens from Manitoba, Canada, into the United States, with other co-conspirators, and Shand picked up the aliens just south of the Canadian border in the United States and drove them to Chicago,” said a statement issued by the US justice department after Patel and Shand were sentenced.

The US prosecutors were able to prove that Patel and Shand disregarded the physical safety of several of these illegal migrants, which led to the deaths of four Indian nationals in January 2022. According to the law enforcement agencies, Patel and Shand attempted to smuggle 11 migrants from Canada into the United States despite freezing weather conditions.

America’s department of homeland security and the US customs and border protection were responsible for conducting the investigation with assistance from the justice department and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“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. This case demonstrates the grave danger associated with human smuggling operations,” head of the justice department’s criminal division Matthew R. Galeotti said.

Migration issues featured in high level diplomatic conversations between India and the US on Thursday as India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri met America’s deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau.