Minneapolis — More than three years after a family of four from India died in a blizzard while attempting to cross into the United States along a remote stretch of the Canadian border, two men are scheduled to be sentenced in Minnesota on Wednesday on human smuggling charges for their roles in what prosecutors call an international conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors have suggested nearly 20 years in prison for the alleged ringleader, Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, and over 11 years for the driver who was scheduled to pick up the family, Steve Anthony Shand.
The jail sentences are up to U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, who declined to overturn the guilty findings last month, stating, “This was not a close case.”
Tunheim will dole down the penalties at the federal courthouse in Fergus Falls, northwestern Minnesota, where the two men were tried and convicted on four counts each last November.
The smuggling operation
During the trial, prosecutors claimed that Patel, an Indian national known by the alias “Dirty Harry,” and Shand, a US citizen from Florida, were involved in a sophisticated illegal operation that brought dozens of people from India to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them across the US border.
The victims, Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their 3-year-old son, Dharmik, all died from exposure to cold. On January 19, 2022, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police discovered their remains just north of the Manitoba–Minnesota boundary.
Harshkumar Patel, like his family, was from Dingucha, a village in Gujarat, western India. Patel is a common Indian surname, and the victims were unrelated to the culprit. According to local press, the pair worked as schoolteachers. numerous residents have left for better living abroad, both legally and otherwise, leaving numerous homes unoccupied.
Harsh circumstances
Prosecutor Michael McBride noted that the father died while trying to shield Dharmik’s face from a “blistering wind” with a frozen glove. Vihangi was wearing “ill-fitting boots and gloves.” Their mother “died slumped against a chain-link fence, she must have thought salvation lay behind,” McBride said.
That morning, a neighboring weather station recorded a wind chill of -36 Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius).
Seven other members of their group survived the foot crossing, but only two reached Shand’s vehicle, which was trapped in the snow on the Minnesota side. One woman who survived had to be taken to the hospital due to severe frostbite and hypothermia. Another survivor said that he had never seen snow until landing in Canada. The survivor informed the jury that their meager winter clothes were all given by the smugglers.
What prosecutors say
“Mr. Patel has showed no remorse. Even now, he denies being the ‘Dirty Harry’ who collaborated with Mr. Shand on this smuggling operation, despite strong evidence to the contrary and counsel for his co-defendant identifying him as such at trial,” McBride said.
Prosecutors requested a sentence of 19 years and 7 months for Patel, which is the upper end of the suggested range under federal sentencing guidelines for his acts. They requested that Shand’s sentence be 10 years and 10 months, which is in the center of his distinct guidelines range.
“Even as this family wandered through the blizzard at 1:00 AM, searching for Mr. Shand’s van, Mr. Shand was focused on one thing, which he texted Mr. Patel: ‘we not losing any money,'” said McBride. “Worse, when Customs and Border Patrol arrested Mr. Shand sitting in a mostly unoccupied 15-passenger van, he denied others were out in the snow — leaving them to freeze without aid.”
What defense attorneys say:
Patel’s attorneys, who contended that the evidence was insufficient, had not submitted a sentencing recommendation by Tuesday. They did, however, request that a government-paid attorney represent him in his planned appeal. Patel has been in jail since his arrest at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in February 2024, and according to the application, he has no income or assets.
Shand has been free until his punishment. His lawyers deemed the government’s suggested sentence “unduly punitive” and asked only 27 months. The attorney, federal lawyer Aaron Morrison, recognized Shand’s “level of culpability” but claimed that his role was minimal – that he was simply a taxi driver who needed money to feed his wife and six children.
“Mr. Shand was on the outside of the conspiracy, he did not plan the smuggling operation, he did not have decision making authority, and he did not reap the huge financial benefits as the real conspirators did,” Morrison stated in an email.