CP NewsAlert: Man sentenced to 10 years for human smuggling in case of frozen family

By Canadian Press on May 28, 2025.

FERGUS FALLS — A judge in Minnesota has sentenced Harshkumar Patel to 10 years for his role in a human smuggling operation that saw a family freeze to death in southern Manitoba near the Canada-U.S. border.

Judge John Tunheim is set to sentence a co-accused in the case, Steve Shand, later today.

The two men were convicted last fall on four charges related to bringing people illegally into the United States from Canada.

Court was told that during one operation in January 2022, a couple from India and their two children were sent walking across the border in an overnight blizzard.

Their bodies were later found in a field metres from the border.

Court heard Patel organized the logistics of the smuggling trips, while Shand picked up migrants on the U.S. side in rented vehicles and drove them to cities including Chicago.

More coming.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press

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