MINNEAPOLIS—A federal jury in Minnesota convicted Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, and Steve Anthony Shand, 50, on Friday for their roles in a human smuggling operation that resulted in the deaths of four Indian nationals, including two children, near the U.S.-Canada border.
Prosecutors presented evidence that between December 2021 and January 2022, Patel, also known as “Dirty Harry,” and Shand conspired to smuggle dozens of Indian migrants from Canada into the United States. The operation involved transporting migrants who had arrived in Canada on student visas across the Manitoba-Minnesota border and then driving them to destinations in the United States, such as Chicago.
The case centered on a January 19, 2022, incident when U.S. Border Patrol stopped Shand in a van near the Minnesota-North Dakota border, less than a mile from Canada. Five Indian nationals, who had been walking in subzero temperatures to meet Shand, were later found nearby. One member of the group carried a backpack with children’s items, explaining it belonged to a family of four who had been separated during their journey.
Canadian authorities later discovered the frozen bodies of the family—two adults, an 11-year-old girl, and a three-year-old boy—on the Canadian side of the border. Temperatures that night had plunged to 36 degrees below zero. Evidence showed Patel and Shand were paid to smuggle the family, disregarding the life-threatening conditions.
Both men were convicted on four counts of human smuggling. Each faces up to 20 years in prison on the first two counts and up to 10 years on the remaining counts. A federal judge will determine their sentences at a later date.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Border Patrol, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, with assistance from the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.