The ringleader of a human smuggling plot that let a family of four from India freeze to death at the U.S-Canada border was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge John Tunheim ordered that Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel - nicknamed “Dirty Harry” by authorities - be sentenced to a decade behind bars for leading the deadly operation. Prosecutors requested a 20-year sentence. Another plot member, driver Steve Anthony Shand was sentenced to six-and-a-half years, though prosecutors had recommended he receive 11 years.
“The crime in many respects is extraordinary because it did result in the unimaginable death of four individuals, including two children,” Tunheim said. “These were deaths that were clearly avoidable.”
The two men were tried and convicted on four counts apiece last November in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. During their trials, prosecutors said that Patel, an Indian national, and Shand, a U.S. citizen from Florida, participated in an illegal operation that brought people from India into Canada on student visas before smuggling them into the U.S.
That operation left Jagdish and Vaishaliben Patel, and their children, 11-year-old Vihangi and three-year-old Dharmik, frozen to death at the border in 2022, prosecutors said. The morning the family was found, a mere 33 feet from the U.S. border, was -36 degrees, according to a nearby weather station.
The family was originally from Dingucha, a village in the Indian state of Gujarat, which is also where Harshkumar Patel is from. In the village, Patel is a common last name and the victims were not related to the defendant.
Before Harshkumar Patel’s sentencing, his attorney maintained his innocence, arguing that he was a “low man on the totem pole” and asked for time served, which was 18 months.
However, acting U.S. Attorney Lisa Kirkpatrick said he was exploiting migrants’ hopes for a better life in America to benefit himself.
“We should make no mistake, it was the defendant’s greed that set in motion the facts that brought us here today,” she said before the sentencing.
Harshkumar Patel, wearing an orange prison uniform and handcuffs, declined to address the court and showed little remorse for his actions.
“Mr. Patel has never shown an ounce of remorse. Even today, he continues to deny he is the ‘Dirty Harry’ that worked with Mr. Shand on this smuggling venture — despite substantial evidence to the contrary and counsel for his co-defendant identifying him as such at trial,” prosecutor Michael McBride wrote.
He had requested a government-paid attorney to appeal the decision.
Meanwhile, Shand’s attorney requested just 27 months for his client, arguing his role was limited as he was essentially acting as a taxi driver.
“Mr. Shand was on the outside of the conspiracy; he did not plan the smuggling operation, he did not have decision-making authority, and he did not reap the huge financial benefits as the real conspirators did,” his attorney, Aaron Morrison, wrote.
