Latest news with #Dingucha
Time of India
4 days ago
- Time of India
Guj man gets 10-yr jail in US for Dingucha deaths
1 2 3 New York: Two men have been sentenced to jail in the US for their roles in a human trafficking racket that resulted in the death of a Dingucha couple and their two children in Jan 2022. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, and his co-conspirator Steve Anthony Shand, 50, were part of a large-scale human-smuggling operation that brought Indian nationals to Canada on fraudulent student visas and then smuggled them into the US across the northern border. Ramanlal Patel, an Indian national from Florida, was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison for his role in the conspiracy. He will be deported from the US following his sentence. Shand was sentenced to six years and six months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, the US Department of Justice said in a statement on Wednesday. In Jan 2022, four family members -- Jagdish Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Patel, 37, Vihangi Patel, 11 and Dharmik Patel, 3, were found frozen to death near Emerson, Manitoba, approximately 12 metres from the Canada-US border, while attempting to enter America illegally. Ramanlal Patel was arrested by authorities from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in 2024 for his involvement in the human smuggling conspiracy. "Every time I think about this case, I think about this family — including two beautiful little children — who the defendants left to freeze to death in a blizzard," acting US attorney Lisa Kirkpatrick for the District of Minnesota said. "As we've seen time and time again, human traffickers care nothing for humanity. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch CFD với công nghệ và tốc độ tốt hơn IC Markets Đăng ký Undo I am proud of the work of our law enforcement partners in holding these defendants accountable for their unspeakable crimes," she said. The Justice Department statement said Ramanlal Patel organised the logistics of smuggling individuals from Manitoba, Canada, into the United States, with other co-conspirators, and Shand picked them up just south of the Canadian border in the US and drove them to Chicago. Both men were paid for their roles in the conspiracy and disregarded the risks posed to the persons by the cold weather at the northern border. According to evidence at trial, the going rate to be smuggled from India through Canada into the United States was $100,000. "Patel and Shand endangered thousands of lives for their personal enrichment and are responsible for the deaths of two small children who froze to death on their watch," said Matthew R Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. "This case demonstrates the grave danger associated with human smuggling operations. I thank the prosecutors and our law enforcement partners in the US and in Canada who are working to secure the northern border and end the perilous smuggling of aliens into the United States," he said. On Jan 18 and 19, 2022, Ramanlal Patel and Shand, despite repeated warnings about the dangers, organised the smuggling of 11 people, including the Patel family of four, from Canada into the US on foot in severe winter weather conditions. On the evening of Jan 18, Shand sent Ramanlal Patel a screenshot with a blizzard alert warning of wind gusts as high as 50 mph (about 80 km per hour) and wind chill temperatures below -45 degrees. The recorded wind chill temperature on the morning of Jan 19 was -36 degrees. In the early morning hours of Jan 19, during blizzard conditions in Minnesota, a US Border Patrol agent found Shand's van stuck in the snow and arrested him along with two individuals. Contrary to Shand's statement to law enforcement that there were no other individuals out in the snow, five more persons emerged from the fields, including one suffering from hypothermia with an internal temperature below 90 degrees, who was airlifted to Regions Hospital in St Paul, Minnesota. Later that day, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) found the dead bodies of the Patel family frozen in an isolated area on the Canadian side of the international border. The three-year-old boy was wrapped in a blanket with his father's frozen glove covering his face. As proven at trial, Ramanlal Patel and Shand had been paid to smuggle the family into the US. In November 2024, a federal jury convicted Ramanlal Patel and Shand of conspiracy to bring individuals to the US, causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. They were also convicted of attempted transportation of individuals for commercial advantage or private financial gain, and aiding and abetting the attempted transportation of individuals. Special Agent in Charge Jamie Holt of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) St Paul said the sentencing marks a crucial moment of accountability in a case that revealed the harrowing realities of human smuggling. "The callous disregard for life that led to the tragic deaths of an entire family will not be forgotten. At HSI, we remain steadfast in our mission to work with our partners across borders to dismantle criminal smuggling networks, bring justice to those responsible, and safeguard human dignity," Holt said. PTI
CNN
5 days ago
- General
- CNN
Convicted head of human smuggling plot gets 10 years after Indian family dies on US-Canada border
More than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while trying to enter the U.S. along a remote stretch of the Canadian border in a blizzard, the alleged ringleader of an international human smuggling plot was sentenced in Minnesota on Wednesday to 10 years in prison. Federal prosecutors had recommended nearly 20 years for Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, and nearly 11 years for the driver who was supposed to pick them up, Steve Anthony Shand. Shand also was to be sentenced Wednesday. The two men appeared before U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, who declined last month to set aside the guilty verdicts, writing, 'This was not a close case.' The judge handed down the sentences at the federal courthouse in the northwestern Minnesota city of Fergus Falls, where the two men were tried and convicted on four counts apiece last November. Prosecutors said during the trial that Patel, an Indian national who they say went by the alias 'Dirty Harry,' and Shand, a U.S. citizen from Florida, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that brought dozens of people from India to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them across the U.S. border. They said the victims, Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, froze to death. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their bodies just north of the border between Manitoba and Minnesota on Jan. 19, 2022. The family was from Dingucha, a village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, as was Harshkumar Patel. Patel is a common Indian surname, and the victims were not related to the defendant. The couple were schoolteachers, local news reports said. So many villagers have gone overseas in hopes of better lives — legally and otherwise — that many homes there stand vacant. The father died while trying to shield Dharmik's face from a 'blistering wind' with a frozen glove, prosecutor Michael McBride wrote. Vihangi was wearing 'ill-fitting boots and gloves.' Their mother 'died slumped against a chain-link fence she must have thought salvation lay behind,' McBride wrote. A nearby weather station recorded the wind chill that morning at -36 Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius). Seven other members of their group survived the foot crossing, but only two made it to Shand's van, which was stuck in the snow on the Minnesota side. One woman who survived had to be flown to a hospital with severe frostbite and hypothermia. Another survivor testified he had never seen snow before arriving in Canada. Their inadequate winter clothes were only what the smugglers provided, the survivor told the jury. '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,' McBride wrote. Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 19 years and 7 months for Patel, at the top end of the recommended range under federal sentencing guidelines for his actions. They asked for Shand's sentence to be 10 years and 10 months, in the middle of his separate guidelines range. 'Even as this family wandered through the blizzard at 1:00 AM, searching for Mr. Shand's van, Mr. Shand was focused on one thing, which he texted Mr. Patel: 'we not losing any money,'' McBride wrote. 'Worse, when Customs and Border Patrol arrested Mr. Shand sitting in a mostly unoccupied 15-passenger van, he denied others were out in the snow — leaving them to freeze without aid.' Patel's attorneys, who have argued that the evidence was insufficient, did request a government-paid attorney for his planned appeal. Patel has been jailed since his arrest at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago in February 2024 and claimed in the filing to have no income and no assets. Shand has been free pending sentencing. His attorney called the government's requested sentence 'unduly punitive' and requested just 27 months. The attorney, federal defender Aaron Morrison, acknowledged that Shand has 'a level of culpability' but argued that his role was limited — that he was just a taxi driver who needed money to support his wife and six children. '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,' Morrison wrote.
