Man accused of human smuggling in deaths of Indian family during blizzard near Minnesota-Canada border
Man accused of human smuggling in deaths of Indian family during blizzard near Minnesota-Canada border
Toronto: Federal agents arrested a 28-year-old man in Chicago last week in connection with a human smuggling operation that left an Indian migrant family frozen to death along the Minnesota-Canadian border in 2022.
Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, an Indian national, was charged with two counts of illegally transporting non-citizens into the United States, according to federal court records unsealed Thursday. A warrant was issued for his arrest last September, when authorities tied Patel to a covert smuggling operation focused on Minnesota’s northern border.
Patel allegedly organized the Jan. 19, 2022, trip in which a family of four from Gujarat, India, became separated from the group in a blizzard.
Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben Patel, 37; and their children, Vihangi, 11, and Dharmik, 3, perished in the snow on the Canadian side, about 6 miles east of Emerson, Manitoba. They were trying to cross into the U.S. on a night when the temperature dipped to 10 degrees below zero. It’s not clear whether they were related to the suspect.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent stopped a 15-passenger van in a rural area south of the border between Lancaster, Minn., and Pembina, N.D., and found two unauthorized Indian nationals and Floridian Steve Shand inside.
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