Men going to jail for fatal smuggling at border

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Left, center: Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, Steve Anthony Shand (Grand Forks County Correction Center). Right, L-R: Jagdish, Dharmik, Vaishaliben and Vihangi Patel (RCMP).

In January 2022 a harsh and freezing blizzard swept across northern Minnesota near the U.S. border with Canada with a wind chill of -36 degrees.

But despite the frigid conditions, two men smuggled a family of four — including two children, ages 11 and 3 — across the border and left them to die. Now the smugglers, Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, and Steve Anthony Shand, 50, are headed to prison.

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Patel to 10 years and one month behind bars and Shand to 6 1/2 years in prison, the Department of Justice said in a press release.

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According to prosecutors, Patel and Shand were part of an “international human smuggling conspiracy” that obtained Canadian student visas for people in India for a going rate of $100,000. Patel would smuggle the people out of Manitoba, Canada, and Shand, waiting on the U.S. side of the border, would drive them to Chicago.

That was supposed to be the plan for Jagdish and Vaishaliben Patel and their children Vihangi, 11, and Dharmik, 3. But on Jan. 18, 2022, Shand sent Harshkumar Patel (no relation to the victims) a screenshot of a forecast for the incoming storm that was supposed to bring 50 mph gusts and wind chills of up to -50.

Despite the warnings, Patel smuggled the family and seven others across the border on foot where they were supposed to meet up with Shand. In the early morning hours of Jan, 19, 2022, a U.S. Border Patrol agent found Shand’s van stuck in the snow. Two undocumented immigrants were with him in the van.

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Shand claimed there were no one else in the area, but agents found five other people in nearby fields, including one suffering from hypothermia with a body temperature under 90 degrees. Later that day, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found the Patel family dead on the Canada side of the border.

“The boy was wrapped in a blanket with his father’s frozen glove covering his face,” prosecutors said.

A federal jury in November convicted the suspects of a slew of illegal immigration and smuggling-related charges.

“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.”

Patel’s defense attorney claimed his client was a “low man on the totem pole” and asked for 18 months behind bars, according to a courtroom report by The Associated Press.

But his argument left U.S. District Judge John Tunheim unconvinced.

“The crime in many respects is extraordinary because it did result in the unimaginable death of four individuals, including two children,” Tunheim reportedly said. “These were deaths that were clearly avoidable.”