Deny smugglers’ appeal: prosecutors

U.S. prosecutors are urging judges to dismiss appeals filed by two men convicted of smuggling Indian nationals into Minnesota from Manitoba in an operation that led to the deaths of a family.

In separate court briefs filed Monday, federal attorneys argued why the convictions and years-long sentences handed to Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand should stand.

“Embarking on a venture to smuggle aliens on foot in the middle of a blizzard in northern Minnesota recklessly created a substantial risk of death or injury,” the attorneys wrote in a 75-page brief in response to Patel’s appeal. “Under those circumstances, it was foreseeable that smuggled migrants would die, and four did.”

Jurors convicted Patel and Shand of four charges in November 2024 for their roles in a large-scale human smuggling ring.

Patel was sentenced to just over 10 years in prison in May 2025. Shand received 6 ½ years. Prosecutors said the men were driven by greed and fully aware of the dangers the migrants faced in cold weather.

The frozen bodies of parents Jagdish Patel, 39, and Vaishaliben Patel, 37, their three-year-old son Dharmik, and their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, were found in a field east of Emerson in January 2022.

By then, U.S. border patrol agents had arrested Shand during a traffic stop and rescued seven Indian nationals just inside Minnesota, after the group spent hours walking overnight in a blizzard and -35 wind chill. One of the survivors had severe hypothermia.

The migrants were given inadequate winter clothing when they were driven from a home in Winnipeg, dropped off on a rural road and told to walk across the border to a waiting van, jurors heard.

Manitoba RCMP officers and U.S. agents found boot prints from illegal crossings in the weeks before the family died.

Prosecutors said Harshkumar Patel, an Indian national who is in the U.S. illegally and is not related to the victims, co-ordinated smuggling trips in December 2021 and January 2022, involving groups who arrived in Canada from India on fraudulent student visas.

Prosecutors said Shand, from Deltona, Fla., picked up migrants when they crossed the border and drove them to Chicago. The going rate to be smuggled from India to the U.S. was US$100,000, jurors heard.

Patel, who is representing himself, filed an appeal in January with seven arguments, including claims that there was a lack of evidence to prove he caused the migrants’ deaths or injuries.

In response, federal attorneys said Patel, 30, is taking a “scattershot” approach, the evidence of his guilt at trial was overwhelming, and neither they nor the sentencing judge made an error.

“The evidence at trial included extensive and incriminating text message communications between Patel and Shand in which they discussed planning to smuggle people, arranging logistics, negotiating rates and payment, and addressing problems as they arose,” the attorneys wrote.

Prosecutors rejected Shand’s argument that a border patrol agent lacked reasonable suspicion to justify the traffic stop that led to his arrest.

They said the agent was investigating a specific pattern of illegal crossings, and the presence of an unmarked van with two passengers who appeared to be of Indian descent was unusual.

Shand’s appeal claimed a “death” enhancement shouldn’t have been applied to his sentence. He argued there was no evidence the family’s deaths were “causally connected” to him.

Neither Patel nor Shand, 51, called police or 911 for help, despite being aware the migrants were in trouble that night, jurors heard.

The search for the family began when a U.S. agent found baby diapers, mittens, toys and other items in a backpack carried by one of the survivors.

“Worse yet, when a border patrol agent asked (Shand) whether others were out in the cold, he said ‘no,’” prosecutors wrote in a 55-page brief that addressed his appeal.

“By knowingly leaving migrants in conditions he knew were deadly and impeding search and rescue efforts, he directly contributed to the deaths of the family.”

Patel will be deported from the U.S. after his sentence, officials said. His release date is Sept. 24, 2032. He is being held at a low-security prison near Allenwood, Pa., U.S. records show.

Shand is serving his sentence at a medium-security prison in Jesup, Ga. His release date is Nov. 8, 2030.

RCMP have not announced charges in their investigation into the smuggling conspiracy.

Brampton, Ont., resident Fenil Patel, who U.S. prosecutors allege was a smuggling organizer, was arrested last September following an extradition request from the U.S. to face charges there.

Police in India are also investigating.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca