Trial Begins After Family Froze to Death, Lost in Canada

A criminal network stretching from India to Canada made money smuggling families seeking better lives in the United States—including an Indian family of four who died in gusting snow and bone-chilling temperatures two years ago, federal prosecutors plan to argue at a trial starting Monday in Minnesota. Prosecutors have accused Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, of running the scheme and Steve Shand, 50, of Florida of waiting in a truck for 11 migrants, including the couple and two children who died after they tried to walk across the border to the US.

Jagdish Patel, 39, died along with his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s, and with their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and their 3-year-old son, Dharmik. Patel is a common Indian surname and the victims were not related to Harshkumar Patel, who has pleaded not guilty, as has Shand. The family, from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat state, is believed to have spent hours wandering fields in blizzard conditions as the wind chill reached minus 36 Fahrenheit. Canadian authorities found the Patels' frozen bodies on the morning of Jan. 19, 2022. Jagdish Patel was holding Dharmik, who was wrapped in a blanket.

Federal prosecutors say Patel and Shand were part of an operation that scouted clients in India, got them Canadian student visas, arranged transportation, and smuggled them into the US, mostly through Washington state or Minnesota. The US Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on the Canadian border in the year ending Sept. 30. By 2022, the Pew Research Center estimates there were more than 725,000 Indians living illegally in the US, behind only Mexicans and El Salvadorans.

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Over a five-week period, court documents say, Patel and Shand often communicated about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians over a quiet stretch of border. One night in December 2021, Shand messaged Patel that it was "cold as hell" while waiting to pick up one group, the documents say. "They going to be alive when they get here?" he allegedly wrote. During the last trip in January, Shand had messaged Patel, saying: "Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please," according to prosecutors. Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five trips. (More migrant stories.)