FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (KVRR/AP) — The convicted ringleader of an international human smuggling plot and one of his drivers is sentenced in federal court in Fergus Falls. Harshkumar Patel was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Steve Shand to 6 1/2 years. The two men were tried and convicted on four counts apiece last November. Their sentencing comes more…
(UPDATE 4PM) Steve Anthony Shand, got 6 1/2 years Wednesday with two years’ supervised release. FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — 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…
This combination image shows left to right; undated photo released by the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office shows Harshkumar Patel in Elk River, Minn., and undated photo released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows Steve Shand. (AP Photo)MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected requests for new trials for two men convicted on human smuggling charges in the deaths…
Harshkumar Patel & Steve Shand. (AP Photo)FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — A jury convicted two men of charges related to human smuggling for their roles in an international operation that led to the deaths of a family of Indian migrants who froze while trying to cross the U.S.-Canada border during a 2022 blizzard. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national…
This combination image shows left to right; undated photo released by the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office shows Harshkumar Patel in Elk River, Minn., and undated photo released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows Steve Shand. (AP Photo)FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — A man convicted of human smuggling testified Tuesday that he shuttled more than 500 Indian migrants across…
FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (KVRR) — Prosecutors say Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand put financial profit over human life when they attempted to smuggle migrants from India across the U.S.-Canada border into Minnesota over five weeks. Daryl Ritchison, a climatologist and director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network, testified that temperatures were abnormally cold that January morning with wind chills…
FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (KVRR) — It was a packed house at the courthouse full of people waiting for the jury selection. The case, for two men accused of being part of a criminal network that stretched around the world. Federal prosecutors say Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand were part of an operation that scouted clients in India arranging visas,…
The Edward J. Devitt U.S. Courthouse and Federal building, where two men on trial face human smuggling charges in Fergus Falls, Minn. (AP Photo/Michael Goldberg)FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — Nearly three years after a couple from India and their two young children froze to death while trying to cross the border from Canada into the U.S., two men on Monday…
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A man accused of helping smuggle people across the U.S.-Canada border into Minnesota, including four members of an Indian family who froze to death in 2022, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to seven counts of human smuggling. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, who prosecutors say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” entered his plea during a brief…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man accused of helping smuggle people across the U.S.-Canadian border had been warned of blizzard conditions before he arranged for four members of an Indian family to cross in 2022, prosecutors allege. The parents and two young children froze to death. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, who prosecutors say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” is due…
