Overview

• Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Anthony Shand are to be sentenced May 28 in a federal court in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, after their November convictions on human smuggling charges.
• Federal prosecutors have recommended 19 years and 7 months for Patel and 10 years and 10 months for Shand under U.S. sentencing guidelines.
• Court testimony established that Patel, known by the alias “Dirty Harry,” organized the operation while Shand transported migrants across the border.
• Survivors testified that smugglers provided inadequate winter clothing and that Shand denied awareness of the stranded group when arrested.
• On Jan. 19, 2022, the Patel family—teachers Jagdish and Vaishaliben and their children Vihangi and Dharmik—succumbed to hypothermia in a blizzard near the Manitoba-Minnesota border.