‘Dirty Harry’ in the Dock: Trial Begins for Indian Man Accused of Smuggling Gujarati Family That Froze to Death at Canada-U.S. Border
- Harshkumar Patel of Florida and his accomplice Steve Shand are accused of smuggling 11 migrants including an Indian family of four, that that froze to death near Emerson, Manitoba.
Trial began today for Harshkumar Patel, an Indian citizen based in the U.S., and his American accomplice Steve Shand, in a human smuggling case involving an Indian family that froze to death at the U.S.-Canada border. Patel, 29, who had several aliases, including “Dirty Harry,” is accused of orchestrating part of the smuggling operation and enlisting Shand, a 50-year-old Florida resident, to transport the migrants across the U.S.-Canada border.
The court proceedings come nearly three years after the bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishali, 37, their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, were found on Jan. 19, 2022, in a snow-drifted field just 12 meters from the U.S. border, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Citing a trade brief filed by the prosecutors last month, CBC said the Patels died due to hypothermia. “The family was trying to cross the border during a blinding blizzard on a day when the temperature was –23 C, but the wind chill hovered between –35 and –38,” the CBC said. Canadian authorities found the dead family near Emerson, Manitoba— with the dad discovered clutching his son, who was wrapped in a blanket.
Harshkumar Patel, who is not related to Jagdish Patel and his family, was arrested this February in Chicago and was charged in U.S. federal court in the District of Minnesota for transportation of an illegal alien and conspiracy. Shand was arrested on the morning of Jan. 19, 2022, by U.S. border patrol agents as he was in a rented 15-seater passenger van in Minnesota, just south of the Canadian border near Emerson.
Both Patel and Shand have entered not-guilty pleas in federal court in Minnesota. The trial at the federal courthouse in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, is overseen by U.S. District Judge John Tunheim. CBC notes that the courthouse, “about 45 miles southeast of Fargo, North Dakota, is the closest federal courthouse to where the incident happened.’ It is expected to span five days.
The CBC report also notes that the proceedings had previously been delayed, including last year, when lawyers asked for an extension in Shand’s case, citing its complexity and the desire to avoid multiple trials if more charges were laid. That came before Patel was indicted in the case earlier this year, at which point Shand was also indicted on additional charges.
The court briefing further mentions talks between Harshkumar Patel and Shand often spoke about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indian migrants over several weeks past the quiet stretch of the snowy Canadian border, documents from prosecutors allege. “16 degrees cold as hell,” Shand messaged Harshkumar during an earlier trip. “They going to be alive when they get here?” Patel and Shand knew each other because they frequented certain casino game rooms and both lived in or around Deltona, Fla.,
During a March 9, 2022, interview with a U.S. Homeland Security investigator, Shand “described five total trips he had made to the international border in Minnesota in December 2021 and January 2022 to transport Indian nationals, for which he was paid a total of $25,000,” the Associated Press reported.
According to court documents detailing Shand’s arrest, U.S. Border Patrol agents found five more Indian citizens, walking in the snow about a quarter-mile south of the Canadian border. They were seen while Shand and his passengers were being taken to a Border Patrol station in North Dakota. The Indian nationals, who spoke Gujarati, according to news reports, told law enforcement officials that were headed to an unstaffed gas plant in St. Vincent, Minnesota, where they were supposed to be picked up by someone, They said that they had been walking for more than 11 hours and had crossed the border from Canada into the U.S.
Some of the witnesses expected during the trial could include U.S. prosecutors say they intend to call several witnesses during the trial, including “law enforcement officers, as well as various expert witnesses and two Canadian forensic pathologists, according to CBC.