Two men sentenced for deadly smuggling plot that killed four Indian nationals.
Two male co-conspirators from Florida have been sentenced to prison after being found guilty for their roles in a human smuggling scheme that led to the deaths of a family of four, including two children, near the U.S.-Canada border in 2022. The men, Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Anthony Shand, were part of an organized group that brought Indian nationals to Canada using fake student visas and then smuggled them across the northern border into the United States. They were paid to transport people across the border in harsh winter conditions, ignoring clear warnings about dangerous weather.
Patel, originally from India, was sentenced to just over 10 years in prison and will be removed from the U.S. after serving his time. Shand received a six-and-a-half-year sentence followed by two years of supervised release. Both were convicted by a jury in 2024 of several crimes, including conspiracy to transport individuals for profit and actions that resulted in serious harm and loss of life.
The incident occurred in January 2022, during a bitter cold snap in Minnesota. The co-conspirators had arranged to move a group of 11 individuals from Canada into the U.S. on foot. Despite receiving weather alerts showing extreme cold and wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour, they went ahead with the plan. The temperature dropped to minus 36 degrees with wind chill by the morning of January 19. That morning, Shand was found by U.S. Border Patrol with his van stuck in snow and two people inside. Five more individuals soon emerged from the fields, one suffering from severe hypothermia. Authorities later discovered the frozen bodies of a family of four—two adults and their young children—on the Canadian side. The three-year-old boy had a blanket around him and his father’s glove on his face.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with help from Canadian authorities. It was prosecuted as part of several efforts by the U.S. government to fight human smuggling and trafficking. According to trial evidence, Patel and Shand were paid thousands of dollars for each person they helped smuggle. The going rate to be moved from India through Canada into the U.S. was around $100,000.
Government officials involved in the case spoke out about the tragedy. They said the co-conspirators had no concern for human life and were only interested in money. One official said he couldn’t stop thinking about the two young children who died in the snow. Another called the crime a harsh reminder of how dangerous and deadly human smuggling can be.
The sentences were the result of work by the Joint Task Force Alpha, which focuses on breaking up criminal groups involved in smuggling across the U.S. southern and northern borders. The task force has been involved in hundreds of arrests and convictions. This case was also supported by the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force, a program that tracks smuggling operations that pose threats to public safety or national security.
This case is part of a larger effort called Operation Take Back America, which is meant to shut down smuggling routes, break up cartels, and protect communities from crimes related to illegal immigration. Investigators and prosecutors in the U.S. and Canada worked together to hold Patel and Shand responsible for putting many lives at risk and causing four innocent people to die.
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Two Men Sentenced to Prison for Role in International Human Smuggling Conspiracy that Resulted in the Death of a Family of Four
Pair sentenced in human smuggling case that left Indian family dead on Minnesota border
