Alleged smuggler in border deaths case indicted in U.S.
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2022 (1347 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
MINNEAPOLIS — A Florida man allegedly involved in a human smuggling case at the U.S.-Canadian border has been indicted by a federal grand jury.
According to U.S. court documents, the indictments — two counts of human smuggling — were handed down Feb. 17.
Steven Shand was arrested Jan. 19, in northeastern Minnesota, after he was found transporting people who illegally crossed into the United States from Manitoba, police said at the time.
An Indian family of four, believed to be part of a larger group of people trying to enter the country, froze to death on the Canadian side of the border.
Shand was arrested between the Lancaster, Minn., and Pembina, N.D., ports of entry.
U.S. border patrol agents stopped a white passenger van less than a half-kilometre south of the border. Agents determined two passengers in the van were undocumented Indian nationals. A short time later, agents discovered a group of five Indian nationals walking along a rural road toward the area where Shand was arrested.
Members of that group later said they had walked across the border expecting to be picked up.
Authorities found one member of the group was carrying a backpack containing items for a baby. Since there was no baby with the group, agents notified RCMP, who initiated a search about 10 km east of Emerson.
The bodies of a man, woman and two children were found shortly thereafter in a field.
The RCMP later determined the family — Jagdishkumar Patel, 39, wife Vaishaliben Patel, 37, Vihangi Patel, 11, and Dharmik Patel, 3 — had died of exposure.
Shand was granted conditional release at a pretrial and detention hearing Jan. 24, by Magistrate Judge Hildy Bowbeer of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota.
He was ordered to remain near his home in Florida, and is not to travel outside the state unless it is to attend court in Minnesota. He is being monitored by a pretrial supervisor in Florida.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice Archives website, transporting a person who has entered the country illegally is a crime that can be punished by up to five years in prison, though there may be aggravating conditions that could extend that sentence.
— Grand Forks Herald