In connection with a human smuggling operation that resulted in an Indian migrant family being frozen to death along the Minnesota–Canadian border in 2022, federal officials detained a 28-year-old guy in Chicago last week.
In federal court documents released on Thursday, Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel was charged with two counts of bringing non-citizens into the country illegally.
When officials linked Patel to a clandestine smuggling operation targeted at Minnesota’s northern border in September of last year, a warrant for his arrest was issued.
According to reports, Patel planned the trip on January 19, 2022, during which a family of four from Gujarat, India, got lost in a snowstorm and split from the party.
The bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, and his wife Vaishaliben Patel, 37, as well as their two children, Dharmik, 3, and Vihangi, 11, were found frozen in the snow around 6 miles east of Emerson, Manitoba.
It was a night when the temperature dropped to ten degrees below zero when they attempted to enter the United States. Whether they were connected to the suspect is unclear.
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In a rural location south of the border between Lancaster, Minn., and Pembina, N.D., a U.S. Border Patrol agent stopped a 15-passenger van and discovered two undocumented Indian nationals and a Floridian named Steve Shand inside.
Five other survivors were found nearby, one of them with a rucksack containing toys, diapers, and clothing for children. Four hours after the search was launched, the Patel family’s bodies were discovered.
For his suspected part in the fatalities in February 2022, Shand was charged. According to a 26-page lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a forensic investigation of his smartphones showed that he and Patel had spoken hundreds of times to arrange logistics for trafficking people over the international boundary.
Authorities arrested a man at O'Hare International Airport in connection to the January 2022 blizzard deaths of an Indian migrant family near the Minnesota-Canada border. https://t.co/pi5rjgNEKG
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) February 24, 2024
Shand texted Patel a message early on January 19 asking him to “please make sure everyone is dressed for blizzard conditions.” Investigators discovered the communication. According to the complaint, Shand informed officials that Patel had given him an estimated $25,000 for five prior instances of transporting goods from Minnesota to Chicago.
Shand recognized Patel from a picture as “Harry,” one of his well-known aliases. According to court documents, Patel has had his application for a U.S. visa denied at least five times because consulate officials thought his plans to study there were “not credible.” According to federal officials, he entered the country illegally in 2018.
The Chicago Tribune was informed by Patel’s lawyer, Michael Leonard, that his client was detained last week at O’Hare International Airport while picking up a friend. It took some time to get in touch with Leonard for a response.
