Trial postponed of accused U.S. human smuggler linked to deaths of Indian family

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/12/2023 (668 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new court filing suggests additional charges are possible against a Florida man accused of smuggling Indian migrants across the Canada-U.S. border, when a family froze to death near Emerson in January 2022.

The trial of Steve Shand has been postponed to a tentative start date of Feb. 20 in Fergus Falls, Minn., after a series of adjournments.

Shand, 49, has pleaded not guilty to two human smuggling charges. A joint motion filed by prosecutors and his lawyer suggests more charges could be filed.

“The United States has indicated the possibility of filing a superseding indictment, and additional time will allow the parties to prepare for possible further charges,” the document stated. “Additional time may enable all potential charges to be resolved without one or more separate indictments and therefore avoid the need for multiple trials.”

Shand was arrested just across the international border, northeast of St. Vincent, Minn., while allegedly picking up a group of Indian nationals who had illegally walked crossed the boundary in January 2022.

U.S. authorities claim two migrants were found in Shand’s rental van and five others were discovered walking nearby, after trudging through snow-packed fields east of Emerson.

They had suffered varying degrees of frostbite after being exposed to a -35 C blizzard, while walking almost 12 hours overnight, according to court documents.

U.S. authorities believe they were walking toward lights outside an unoccupied gas plant on the Minnesota side of the border, and expected to be picked up on a remote road.

While in custody, one of the migrants alerted agents to the missing family of four, who became separated in darkness, court documents stated.

A few hours later, Manitoba RCMP officers discovered the frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishaliben, 37, their daughter, Vihangi, 11, and son, Dharmik, 3, just metres from the border.

The family, from the state of Dingucha in western India, was attempting to emigrate to the U.S., where they had relatives.

Investigators believe the incident was part of a larger smuggling operation.

The seven survivors were placed in deportation proceedings.

Shand, who is from Deltona, Fla., has not been charged in the deaths of the Patel family. He is only charged in the U.S., where he was released from custody with conditions.

His trial had a tentative start date of Dec. 18, until a judge granted a joint request for an extension.

A spokeswoman for federal prosecutor Laura Provinzino’s office declined to comment. Shand’s lawyer, Aaron Morrison, did not respond to a request for comment.

As of May, Indian authorities had arrested three suspects and started the process to extradite two Canadians — both Vancouver residents — to face charges, police officials told The Canadian Press.

Meanwhile, Manitoba RCMP continue to investigate the Patel family’s movements in Canada, after they flew to Toronto from India via Dubai.

Police were attempting to find out how the family travelled to Manitoba and who drove them to the Emerson area.

“The Manitoba RCMP is working closely with law enforcement partners across Canada and the United States and continues to ask the public for their assistance with the movements of the Patel family within Canada,” RCMP spokesman Robert Cyrenne wrote in an email to the Free Press.

Police are asking anyone with information about the Patel family’s time in Ontario or Manitoba to call investigators at 431-489-8551.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.