Two men were sentenced Wednesday in Minnesota for their roles in an international human smuggling operation that led to the deaths of four Indian nationals, including a 3-year-old and an 11-year-old, in January 2022, officials staterdf.
Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national formerly living in Florida, received 10 years and one month in prison. He will be deported after serving his sentence.
Steve Anthony Shand, 50, also of Florida, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release.
“Every time I think about this case I think about this family—including two beautiful little children—who the defendants left to freeze to death in a blizzard,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick for the District of Minnesota. “As we’ve seen time and time again, human traffickers care nothing for humanity. I am proud of the work of our law enforcement partners in holding these defendants accountable for their unspeakable crimes.”
A jury found that Patel and Shand were part of a smuggling ring that brought Indian nationals into Canada on fake student visas, then illegally moved them across the northern U.S. border.
Patel handled logistics from Manitoba, Canada, while Shand picked up migrants in the U.S. and drove them to Chicago. They were both paid for their roles and ignored the deadly risks posed by winter weather.
The smuggling fee: $100,000 per person.
On January 18–19, 2022, despite blizzard warnings and extreme subzero conditions, Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand orchestrated the smuggling of 11 people across the U.S.–Canada border on foot, including a family of four with an 11-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy.
The night before, Shand sent Patel a blizzard alert warning of 50 mph winds and wind chills below –45°F. The actual wind chill that morning was –36°F.
In the early hours of January 19, U.S. Border Patrol found Shand’s van stuck in the snow and arrested him with two migrants. Although Shand claimed no one else was out in the storm, five more migrants emerged from nearby fields—one nearly frozen to death with a core body temperature below 90°F and was airlifted to a hospital.
Later that day, Canadian authorities discovered the family of four frozen to death near the border.
The 3-year-old was wrapped in a blanket, his face partially covered by his father’s frozen glove. Evidence showed Patel and Shand were paid to smuggle the family.
In November 2024, a federal jury convicted both men of multiple felonies, including conspiracy to smuggle and transport aliens for profit, causing serious injury and endangering lives.