In Fergus Falls, Minnesota, a federal jury has convicted two men, Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand, on multiple charges related to their involvement in a human smuggling operation that led to the deaths of four family members. The victims, who were attempting to cross from Canada into the United States during a blizzard, tragically lost their lives due to the harsh conditions.
The case, which has drawn significant attention, centered around the smuggling of 11 migrants from India across the U.S.-Canada border. The prosecution claimed that on January 19, 2022, Patel paid Shand to collect the migrants from the Manitoba side as temperatures plunged to below minus 33 degrees. During the crossing, a family of four—Jagdish Patel, 37; his wife Vaishaliben, 37; their daughter Vihangi, 11; and son Dharmik, 3—succumbed to the extreme weather.
Authorities apprehended Shand near the border with a van containing two of the migrants and later found additional individuals suffering from severe frostbite in the vicinity. The prosecution argued that Patel orchestrated these smuggling operations from Florida, coordinating with Shand and others to transport migrants to Chicago for financial gain.
Defense arguments painted Shand as an unsuspecting taxi driver exploited by Patel and highlighted discrepancies in identifying the true coordinators of the smuggling operations. A notable twist in the trial involved testimony from Rajinder Pal Singh, a convicted smuggler, who implicated Fenil Patel (unrelated to the victims) as the organizer of the fatal crossing. Fenil Patel is reportedly in Toronto and faces charges by Indian authorities.
The trial also faced a procedural challenge when Shand’s attorney, Aaron Morrison, requested a mistrial due to a late revelation about a prosecution witness’s prior misconduct. The motion was denied by Judge John R. Tunheim, who instructed the jury to consider this information when assessing the witness’s credibility.
The swift verdict, reached after just over an hour of deliberation following three days of testimony, underscores the gravity of the offenses and the jurors’ determination in holding the defendants accountable for their roles in this heartbreaking incident.
