A U.S. court has sentenced Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, a resident of Dingucha village in Gujarat, to 10 years in prison for his role in a human smuggling operation that resulted in the tragic deaths of four Indian migrants in 2022. The victims namely Jagdish Patel (39), his wife Vaishaliben, their daughter Vihangi (11), and their 3-year-old son Dharmik died after being exposed to extreme winter conditions while attempting to cross from Canada into the U.S.
Patel, alias “Dirty Harry,” was found guilty by a Minnesota federal court last year in November. His colleague, Steve Anthony Shand (50) from Florida, was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months, with two years of supervised release.
Both men were members of a huge human smuggling network that organized the illegal influx of Indian nationals from India to Canada on student visas, and further into the United States through the northern border, as per U.S. officials.
Operation Details and Fatal Journey
The Office of Public Affairs disclosed that Patel coordinated logistics to transport migrants from Manitoba, Canada, and Shand was the one to pick them up when they crossed the border into the U.S., then drive them to Chicago. Even with knowledge of the dangers of the harsh winter, they went ahead to carry out the smuggling operation.
The court files showed that the charge for smuggling an individual from India to the U.S. through Canada was approximately $100,000 (about Rs. 8.5 crore).
The horror on January 19, 2022, was discovered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) when they found four frozen bodies on the outskirts of Manitoba, just north of the U.S.-Canada border. The family traveled on a tourist visa, with hopes of finding better prospects in the U.S.
Ignoring Warnings and Final Moments
In spite of being issued a blizzard alert for wind chills as low as -45 degrees and wind gusts of as much as 50 mph, the smuggling attempt went on. The directive read: ‘On the night of January 18, Shand texted Patel a screenshot with a blizzard alert of wind gusts up to 50 mph and wind chill temperatures of below -45 degrees. The wind chill temperature of -36 degrees was recorded on the morning of Jan 19.’
Meanwhile, the same day, U.S. Border Patrol agents discovered Shand’s van stranded in the snow in Minnesota. He and two migrants were arrested. Shand initially denied the presence of any other migrants, but five more people shortly afterward came out of fields nearby, including one with hypothermia who needed emergency airlift to the hospital.
Later that afternoon, the RCMP discovered the dead family in a secluded area. One especially tragic detail from the report stated that the three-year-old boy was covered in a blanket, and his father’s frozen glove wrapped over his face.
Patel, who is unrelated to the deceased family although bearing a similar surname, was also quiet and unemotional during his sentencing. He is reportedly to be deported back to India upon completing his prison sentence.
“The family had arrived in Canada on a tourist visa, with the hope of sneaking into the US for greater opportunities,” the official release said.
