2 men convicted in U.S.-Canada border human smuggling case involving Indian family freezing to death

'This trial exposed the unthinkable cruelty of human smuggling' Minnesota U.S. attorney says after Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand found guilty

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-U.S. 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 U.S, prosecutors said.