Two men, including an Indian national, were sentenced on federal human smuggling charges in a 2022 case when a family of four from Gujarat, including their two children, froze to death while trying to cross into the US from the Canadian border near Minnesota.
The family of four Indians who perished while trying to cross on foot into the US were: 39-year-old Jagdishkumar Patel, 37-year-old Vaishaliben Patel and their two children, 11-year-old Vihangi Patel, and three-year-old Dharmik Patel.
According to the Department of Justice, Indian National Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand, of Florida, were part of a sophisticated human-smuggling operation to illegally bring Indians into the United States, Fox9.com reported.
The pair went on trial in November, where a federal jury found them each guilty on four counts related to human trafficking of foreign nationals.
Prosecutors recommended a nearly 20-year prison sentence for Patel and just over a decade for Shand. Patel was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Shand was sentenced to six and a half years in prison with two years of supervised release.
Prosecutors say Patel was the ringleader and Shand was the driver in this operation.
In January 2022, Shand was to pick up 11 Indian migrants in Minnesota near the Canadian border, but not everybody survived the crossing.
When questioned by authorities, the group estimated they had been walking for over seven hours and were waiting to be picked up. One individual reported possessing a backpack belonging to an Indian family that became separated from the group during the night.
Canadian authorities found the bodies of the two parents and their two children who had frozen to death. Officials say temperatures had plummeted to 36 degrees below zero that night.
Of the seven people who made the crossing, only two made it to Shand’s van.
One woman was ultimately airlifted to a hospital with hypothermia and severe frostbite. One of the survivors testified the smugglers provided inadequate winter clothes, and they had never seen snow prior to arriving in Canada.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) found the family of Jagdishkumar Patel, his wife Vaishaliben Patel and their two children, Vihangi, and three-year-old Dharmik, had flown into Toronto Pearson Airport on January 12, 2022.
They stayed at a hotel in the City of Mississauga and travelled between Mississauga and Welland, Ontario, which is just outside Niagara Falls, between January 14 and 16.
The family arrived in Emerson, Manitoba, which is along the US border, on the night of January 18.
Their bodies were found along the border on the morning of January 19.
“This tragedy was facilitated by individuals who had no regard for the safety and wellbeing of a young family,” said Corporal Julie Courchaine of the Manitoba RCMP in a statement marking one year since the deaths.
