Latest news with #HarshkumarRamanlalPatel
Time of India
29-05-2025
- Time of India
'Dirty Harry' gets 10 yrs in US jail for 4 deaths during trafficking bid
AHMEDABAD: Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, alias "Dirty Harry", was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in a US federal prison for his role in the human smuggling operation that resulted in four members of a Gujarati family dying while trying to cross into the US from Canada on Jan 19, 2022, reports Ashish Chauhan. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Patel was arrested at Chicago airport on Feb 20, 2024 in connection with the deaths. He was convicted in Nov 2024. Indian police sources said Patel arranged at least 35 illegal trips for Indian nationals, most of them from Gujarat's Mehsana district. According to sources, he studied in Canada and lived in New York and Chicago since 2018 after re-entering the US illegally. Before that, Harry had a long record of failed US visa applications.
New York Post
29-05-2025
- New York Post
Human smuggler sentenced to a decade in prison after family of 4 froze to death 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 convicted 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, who got 6 1/2 years Wednesday with two years' supervised release. 'The crime in many respects is extraordinary because it did result in the unimaginable death of four individuals, including two children,' U.S. District Judge John Tunheim said. 'These were deaths that were clearly avoidable.' 7 Federal prosecutors had recommended nearly 20 years for Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel (left) AP Patel's attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told the court before sentencing that Patel maintains his innocence and argued he was no more than a 'low man on the totem pole.' He asked for time served, 18 months. But the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Lisa Kirkpatrick, said Patel exploited the migrants' hopes for a better life in America, out of his own greed. 'We should make no mistake, it was the defendant's greed that set in motion the facts that bring us here today,' she said. Patel, in an orange uniform and handcuffed, declined to address the court. He showed no visible emotion as the sentence was issued. The judge noted that he is likely to be deported to his native India after completing his sentence. He cooperated as marshals handcuffed him and led him from the courtroom. 7 Acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Lisa Kirkpatrick, said Patel exploited the migrants' hopes for a better life. AP Shand, who had been free pending sentencing, showed no visible reaction to his own sentence, either. The judge ordered him to report to prison on July 1 and agreed to recommend that he serve his sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Florida, where he can be near his family. 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. The smuggling operation 7 The Patel family: Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 37, Vihangi, 11, and Dharmik, 3. RCMP 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, 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 their 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. 7 The family was from Dingucha, a village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, as was Harshkumar Patel. AP Harsh blizzard conditions 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.. 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. What prosecutors say Kirkpatrick told reporters after Wednesday's hearing that as a lifelong Minnesotan, she would not have gone out in that weather. 'But the defendants sent into that weather 11 migrants — Indian nationals who were not dressed appropriately, were ill-prepared for the weather they faced that night,' she said. Kirkpatrick pointed out that the family who died had walked for hours trying to find Shand, who had been sent by Patel. 7 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their bodies just north of the border between Manitoba and Minnesota on Jan. 19, 2022. AP 'These defendants knew it was cold. In fact, they knew it was life-threatening cold,' she said. 'They didn't care. What they cared about was money, and their callous indifference to the value of human life cost a family of four their lives.' What defense attorneys say Patel's attorney, Leinenweber, said his client will appeal but declined to speculate on what grounds. 'He had kind of resigned himself to the fact that the sentence would be longer than he had hoped,' the attorney said. 'And he's not happy with it. But he does wish to appeal and take advantage of his rights.' Shand's attorney, federal defender Aaron Morrison, did not talk to reporters afterward. 7 Steve Anthony Shand Leaves court after being sentenced on human smuggling charges on May 28, 2025, in Fergus Falls, Minn. AP Morrison acknowledged in a presentencing filing 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. Human smuggling at the northern border A top regional U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told reporters Wednesday that human smuggling along the border in the area has been holding 'fairly steady,' with no sharp increases or decreases. 7 A border marker, between the United States and Canada is shown just outside of Emerson, Manitoba, on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. AP 'We hope that this is a strong message, and especially during the inclement months,' said Michael Hanson, the acting chief patrol agent for the Grand Forks, North Dakota, sector, which covers North Dakota and Minnesota. 'You know, there very well could have been 11 deaths associated with this event.'
News18
29-05-2025
- News18
Two Sentenced In US For Human Smuggling That Killed Four Indians, Including Children
The US Department of Justice on Thursday said that two men have been sentenced in the District of Minnesota. The arrest comes after they were convicted in a case related to an international human smuggling conspiracy that resulted in the deaths of four Indian nationals, including a three-year-old and an 11-year-old child, in January 2022. According to the Office of Public Affairs, one of the arrested has been identified as 29-year-old Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel. He is an Indian national formerly residing in Florida and was sentenced to 10 years and one month in federal prison by a district court in Minnesota. He will now be removed from the United States following his sentence.
Deccan Herald
29-05-2025
- Deccan Herald
2 human traffickers get jail terms for Indian family's death at US-Canada border
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.
Arab Times
29-05-2025
- Arab Times
Human smuggling plot head gets 10 yrs after Indian family of 4 died on US-Canada border
FERGUS FALLS, Minn, May 29, (AP): More than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while trying to enter the US along a remote stretch of the Canadian border in a blizzard, the convicted 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, who got 6 1/2 years Wednesday with two years' supervised release. "The crime in many respects is extraordinary because it did result in the unimaginable death of four individuals, including two children,' US District Judge John Tunheim said. "These were deaths that were clearly avoidable.' Patel's attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told the court before sentencing that Patel maintains his innocence and argued he was no more than a "low man on the totem pole.' He asked for time served, 18 months. But the acting US attorney for Minnesota, Lisa Kirkpatrick, said Patel exploited the migrants' hopes for a better life in America, out of his own greed. "We should make no mistake, it was the defendant's greed that set in motion the facts that bring us here today,' she said. Patel, in an orange uniform and handcuffed, declined to address the court. He showed no visible emotion as the sentence was issued. The judge noted that he is likely to be deported to his native India after completing his sentence. He cooperated as marshals handcuffed him and led him from the courtroom. Shand, who had been free pending sentencing, showed no visible reaction to his own sentence, either. The judge ordered him to report to prison July 1 and agreed to recommend that he serve his sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Florida, where he can be near his family. 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.
