By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-22 19:28:42 | Updated at 2024-11-23 00:39:02
5 hours ago
A jury convicted two men of charges related to human smuggling for their roles in an international operation that led to the deaths of a family of Indian migrants who froze while trying to cross the Canada-US border during a 2022 blizzard, according to a prosecution spokesperson.
Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national who prosecutors say went by the alias “Dirty Harry”, and Steve Shand, 50, an American from Florida, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that has brought increasing numbers of Indians into the US, prosecutors said.
They were each convicted on four counts related to human smuggling, including conspiracy to bring migrants into the country illegally.
“This trial exposed the unthinkable cruelty of human smuggling and of those criminal organisations that value profit and greed over humanity,” Minnesota US Attorney Andy Luger said.
“To earn a few thousand dollars, these traffickers put men, women and children in extraordinary peril leading to the horrific and tragic deaths of an entire family. Because of this unimaginable greed, a father, a mother and two children froze to death in sub-zero temperatures on the Minnesota-Canadian border,” Luger added.
The men could face maximum sentences as long as 20 years for the first two counts, 10 years for the third count and five years for the fourth count, the US Attorney’s Office said before the trial. Luger said on Friday that various factors will be considered in determining the sentence that will be sought.
