A man accused of leading an international human smuggling network was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Minnesota court on Wednesday, more than three years after a family of four from India died in a blizzard while attempting to cross into the United States from Canada.
Federal prosecutors had recommended nearly 20 years for Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and nearly 11 years for Steve Anthony Shand, the driver assigned to pick up the family. Shand was also due to be sentenced on Wednesday.
Patel’s attorneys, who argued that the evidence against him was insufficient, have requested a government-appointed lawyer for his planned appeal.
Patel has been in custody since his arrest at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in February 2024 and claimed in court filings that he has no income or assets.
Shand, by contrast, has remained free pending sentencing. His lawyer, federal public defender Aaron Morrison, described the government’s recommended sentence as “unduly punitive” and requested a reduced term of 27 months.
While acknowledging that Shand bore “a level of culpability,” Morrison argued that his client played a minor role in the operation, merely acting as a taxi driver in financial distress, trying to support his wife and six children.
US district judge John Tunheim delivered the sentences at the federal courthouse in Fergus Falls of Minnesota, where the two men were tried and convicted on four counts each last November.
{{/usCountry}}US district judge John Tunheim delivered the sentences at the federal courthouse in Fergus Falls of Minnesota, where the two men were tried and convicted on four counts each last November.
{{/usCountry}}Last month, he had declined to overturn the guilty verdicts, writing, “This was not a close case.”
What was the human smuggling operation?
Prosecutors said during the trial that Patel, an Indian national who used the alias “Dirty Harry,” and Shand, a US citizen from Florida, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation. They brought dozens of people from India to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them across the US border.
The victims, Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben, in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi; and their 3-year-old son Dharmik, froze to death. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their bodies just north of the Manitoba-Minnesota border on January 19, 2022.
The family was from Dingucha, a village in Gujarat, western India, as was Harshkumar Patel. Although Patel is a common surname, the victims were not related to the defendant.
The couple were schoolteachers, local reports said. Many villagers have gone overseas seeking better lives—both legally and illegally—leaving many homes vacant.
The father died trying to shield Dharmik’s face from a “blistering wind” with a frozen glove, prosecutor Michael McBride wrote. Vihangi wore “ill-fitting boots and gloves,” while their mother “died slumped against a chain-link fence she must have thought salvation lay behind,” McBride added.
A nearby weather station recorded the wind chill that morning at -36°F (-38°C).
Seven others in their group survived the crossing on foot, but only two reached Shand’s van, which was stuck in the snow on the Minnesota side.
One woman needed to be airlifted to a hospital with severe frostbite and hypothermia. Another survivor told the jury he had never seen snow before arriving in Canada, and their inadequate winter clothes were the only ones provided by the smugglers.
With Associated Press inputs