2 human traffickers get jail terms for Indian family's death at US-Canada border

New York: Two men have been sentenced to jail in the US for their roles in a human trafficking racket that resulted in the death of an Indian couple and their two children in January 2022.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, and his co-conspirator Steve Anthony Shand, 50, were part of a large-scale human-smuggling operation that brought Indian nationals to Canada on fraudulent student visas and then smuggled them into the US across the northern border.

Ramanlal Patel, an Indian national from Florida, was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison for his role in the conspiracy. He will be deported from the US following his sentence. Shand was sentenced to six years and six months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, the US Department of Justice said in a statement on Wednesday.

In January 2022, four family members -- Jagdish Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Patel, 37, Vihangi Patel, 11 and Dharmik Patel, 3, were found frozen to death near Emerson, Manitoba, approximately 12 metres from the Canada-US border, while attempting to enter America illegally.

Ramanlal Patel was arrested by authorities from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2024 for his involvement in the human smuggling conspiracy.

“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,” Acting US Attorney Lisa Kirkpatrick for the District of Minnesota said.

“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,” she said.

The Justice Department statement said Ramanlal Patel organised the logistics of smuggling individuals from Manitoba, Canada, into the United States, with other co-conspirators, and Shand picked them up just south of the Canadian border in the US and drove them to Chicago.

Both men were paid for their roles in the conspiracy and disregarded the risks posed to the persons by the cold weather at the northern border. According to evidence at trial, the going rate to be smuggled from India through Canada into the United States was $100,000.

"Patel and Shand endangered thousands of lives for their personal enrichment and are responsible for the deaths of two small children who froze to death on their watch,” said Matthew R Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

“This case demonstrates the grave danger associated with human smuggling operations. I thank the prosecutors and our law enforcement partners in the US and in Canada who are working to secure the northern border and end the perilous smuggling of aliens into the United States,” he said.

On January 18 and 19, 2022, Ramanlal Patel and Shand, despite repeated warnings about the dangers, organised the smuggling of 11 people, including the Patel family of four, from Canada into the US on foot in severe winter weather conditions.

On the evening of January 18, Shand sent Ramanlal Patel a screenshot with a blizzard alert warning of wind gusts as high as 50 mph (about 80 km per hour) and wind chill temperatures below -45 degrees. The recorded wind chill temperature on the morning of January 19 was -36 degrees.

In the early morning hours of January 19, during blizzard conditions in Minnesota, a US Border Patrol agent found Shand’s van stuck in the snow and arrested him along with two individuals.

Contrary to Shand’s statement to law enforcement that there were no other individuals out in the snow, five more persons emerged from the fields, including one suffering from hypothermia with an internal temperature below 90 degrees, who was airlifted to Regions Hospital in St Paul, Minnesota.

Later that day, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) found the dead bodies of the Patel family frozen in an isolated area on the Canadian side of the international border. The three-year-old boy was wrapped in a blanket with his father’s frozen glove covering his face.

As proven at trial, Ramanlal Patel and Shand had been paid to smuggle the family into the US.

In November 2024, a federal jury convicted Ramanlal Patel and Shand of conspiracy to bring individuals to the US, causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. They were also convicted of attempted transportation of individuals for commercial advantage or private financial gain, and aiding and abetting the attempted transportation of individuals.

Special Agent in Charge Jamie Holt of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) St Paul said the sentencing marks a crucial moment of accountability in a case that revealed the harrowing realities of human smuggling.

“The callous disregard for life that led to the tragic deaths of an entire family will not be forgotten. At HSI, we remain steadfast in our mission to work with our partners across borders to dismantle criminal smuggling networks, bring justice to those responsible, and safeguard human dignity,” Holt said.