(28 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fergus Falls, Minnesota – 28 May 2025
1. Defendant Steve Shand leaving courthouse after sentencing
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Kirkpatrick, Acting U.S. Attorney:
"I’m a lifelong Minnesotan. I would not go out in this weather. But the defendants sent into that weather 11 migrants. Indian nationals were not dressed appropriately, were ill-prepared for the weather they faced that night. They walked hours trying to find the defendant, Steve Shand, in a smuggling operation that was put in motion by defendant Patel.”
3. Various courthouse exteriors
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Kirkpatrick, Acting U.S. Attorney:
“These defendants knew it was cold. In fact, they knew it was life-threateningly cold, but 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.”
5. Defendant Steve Shand leaving courthouse after sentencing
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Kirkpatrick, Acting U.S. Attorney:
Reporter: “I mean, how large was this ring?”
Kirkpatrick: “Well, the investigation is ongoing, of course, and what we know was dismantled was the ring that involved Shannon Patel.”
Reporter: “How big was it?”
Kirkpatrick: “All I will say is the investigation is ongoing, but we certainly know from the trial that it extended into India and across Canada as well.”
Reporter: “So could more arrests be coming?
Kirkpatrick: “The investigation is ongoing.”
7. Courthouse exterior
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Hanson, Acting Chief Patrol Agent, U.S. Border Patrol:
“We hope that this is a strong message, and especially during the inclement months. There very well could have been 11 deaths associated with this event when you factor in the time that it takes to suffer frostbite or hypothermia at 35 below zero.”
9. Courthouse exterior
STORYLINE:
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.
Patel, in an orange uniform and handcuffed, declined to address the court. He showed no visible emotion as the sentence was issued. 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. 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.
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.
A nearby weather station recorded the wind chill that morning at -36 Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius).
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