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Who is Fenilkumar, arrested for smuggling Gujarati family that froze to death
Fenilkumar Patel was detained in Brampton, Ontario, on September 5, under a provisional arrest warrant issued at the request of the United States.
Ahmedabad: Canadian authorities have arrested Fenilkumar K Patel in connection with the death of four members of a family from Dingucha village in Gujarat who froze to death near the Canada–United States border in January 2022.
Patel was detained in Brampton, Ontario, on September 5, under a provisional arrest warrant issued at the request of the United States.
An affidavit filed in the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario on September 3 shows that Patel is wanted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on charges of human smuggling, causing death and conspiracy. HT has seen a copy of the affidavit. A US court issued a warrant for his arrest on March 18.
If extradited from Canada, Patel would have to stand trial in Minnesota on the smuggling and conspiracy charges.
According to the affidavit, Patel rented a vehicle in Toronto on January 17, 2022, and drove to Winnipeg. The following night, he picked up 11 Indian nationals, including Jagdish Patel, his wife Vaishaliben and their children, 11-year-old Vihangi and three-year-old Dharmik. When the van got stuck in deep snow, Patel allegedly told the migrants to get out and walk across the border in minus-35-degree weather.
U.S. Border Patrol agents later found seven of them alive on the Minnesota side, some suffering from hypothermia. The Patel family from Dingucha did not survive. Their frozen bodies were found by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on January 19, 2022.
Testimony from survivor Yash Patel, also from Gujarat, supported the account. He had entered Canada on a student visa in December 2021 and was eventually moved to Winnipeg before being picked up in Patel’s van. He recalled being told to walk across a field at night with the family of four and others.
A cooperating witness, identified as CW-1, told U.S. officials he worked with Fenilkumar Patel from September 2021 to January 2022 in a smuggling scheme that used Canadian student visas. CW-1 stated that Patel sent him details and photographs of Indian nationals to be relocated to the United States. Phone records, WhatsApp messages and images of seized passports tied Patel to the scheme. CW-1 recalled that Patel called him several times on January 19, 2022, admitting that the family had died and that some migrants were in the hospital.
The court documents also refer to car rental records confirming Patel drove from Toronto to Winnipeg in January 2022, consistent with migrant accounts of being dropped near the border. Investigators said Patel often changed his phone number, and warned that he posed a risk of flight if not arrested.
Patel, an Indian citizen and a native of Surat, was granted Canadian permanent residency in 2018. He was observed leaving his Brampton residence with a child just days before the arrest warrant was sought. The authorities stressed the urgency for his arrest, contending that his extradition would be difficult if he fled to India.
According to the affidavit, one of the survivors interviewed by U.S. agents admitted he was carrying a backpack filled with children’s clothes and toys, although no children were with his group. When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police later reported the recovery of four bodies near Emerson, Manitoba, on January 19, 2022, the survivor identified them as the Patel family he had travelled with from Winnipeg. Investigators said the discovery of the backpack, coupled with his statement, established the link between the group that reached Minnesota and the family that froze to death on the Canadian side.
The affidavit places Patel alongside two other accused who have already been prosecuted.
In November 2024, a jury in Minnesota convicted Steve Anthony Shand, a taxi driver from Florida, and Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, known as Dirty Harry, for conspiring to smuggle migrants. Both were sentenced in May 2025—Shand to six and a half years, and Dirty Harry to ten years.
Together, the three men are alleged to have formed part of a wider network stretching from Gujarat to Canada and the United States. Travel agents in India arranged visas, migrants were flown to Canada, and then transported across the border. Once in the U.S., many were placed in restaurants to work off debts.
