Minneapolis (AP). More than three years after the four family of India frozen to death, trying to move to the United States along a remote canadian stretch of Canada, two men on Wednesday sentenced to a sentence in the Minnesota for smuggling people for their roles for what prosecutors call international conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors recommended almost 20 years in prison for alleged leader Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and a nearly 11 -year -old driver who had to take his family Steve Anthony Shand.
Prison conditions depend on John Tunheim, a US district, who refused to set aside guilty sentences last month, writing, “This was not a close case.”
Tunheim will impose penalties in the Federal Court Hall in Northwest Minnesota Falls, where both men were tried and convicted of four calculations in November last year.
Smuggling operation
Prosecutors said a female, an Indian citizen who, according to them, according to the nickname “Dirty Harry”, and US citizen Shand of Florida, was part of a complex illegal operation that brought dozens of people from India to Canada to student visas and then controlled them across the US border.
They said the victims, Jagdish Patel, 39; His wife, VaiĊĦaliben, who was in the middle of 30 years; their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi; and 3 -year -old son Dharmik, frozen to death. The Canadian Royal Police found their bodies right north of the wall between manitoba and Minnesota in 2022. January 19
The family was from Dingucha, a village of West India in Gujarat, just like Harshkumar Patel. The female is a common name for India and the victims were not related to the defendant. The couple were school teachers, according to local news reports. So many villagers were abroad, hoping for a better life – legally and otherwise that many are free there.
Harsh conditions
Father died trying to protect Dharmik’s face from a “blowing wind” with a frozen glove, prosecutor Michael McBride wrote. Vihangs wore “improperly suitable shoes and gloves”. Their mother “died hidden from the chain fence, which she had to think that the salvation was behind her,” McBride wrote.
The nearby air station captured the wind cool -36 Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius) that morning.
The other seven members of their group survived the foot crossing, but only two went to Shand’s van, who was stuck in the snow on the side of the Minnesota. One survivor had to be flown to the hospital with strong frostbite and hypothermia. Another survivor testified that he had never seen snow before coming to Canada. Their inappropriate winter clothing was just what the smugglers submitted, the remaining person told the jury.
What prosecutors say
Mr
Prosecutors asked Patel 19 years and 7 months’ penalty recommended at the upper end of the range under the federal punishment guidelines for his actions. They asked Shando’s punishment to be 10 years and 10 months in his separate guidelines.
“Even when this family wandered around a snowstorm at 1:00, looking for Mr Shando’s van, Mr. Shand was focused on one thing he wrote to Mr Patel,” We don’t lose money, “wrote McBride. “Worse, when a customs and border patrol arrested Mr. Shanda, who was mostly in a 15-passenger van, he denied that others were snow-free to freeze them without help.”
What do defense lawyers say
Patel lawyers who said the evidence was not enough until Tuesday was not given a sentence recommendation. But they asked the Government’s paid lawyer for the planned appeal. From the arrest at O’Hare at the International Airport in Chicago in 2024. February The female was imprisoned from his arrest and stated in the application that he had no income and had no assets.
Shand was free to wait for punishments. His lawyer called the punishment requested by the Government “unreasonably punishable” and asked for just 27 months. A lawyer, Federal defender Aaron Morrison, admitted that Shand had a “level of guilt”, but said his role was limited – that he was only 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 to smuggle operations, did not have decision -making authorities, and did not use the great financial benefits, as the true conspirators did,” Morrison wrote.