Human smuggling trial hears from migrant who survived crossing border in blizzard

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. -

A human smuggling trial has heard from a migrant who survived walking in a blizzard across the Canada-United States border on the same day a family of four froze to death.

Yash Patel said he arrived in Toronto from India in December 2021 and was sent to Vancouver, back to Toronto, then to a house in Winnipeg.

He told court there were six or seven other adults from India in the house, and they all got into a van with a couple and two children already inside.

He said they were taken on Manitoba roads to the border on a very cold night with blowing snow. When the van became stuck everyone was told to get out and walk in a straight line until they came across another vehicle.

Patel says he got separated from the group and walked alone for five or six hours until he found another van waiting for him.

He was soon taken into custody by border patrol agents, along with the driver.

"It was snowing and it was very windy," Patel, 23, said through an interpreter Wednesday at the trial in Fergus Falls, Minn.

He said the first van driver, who told the group to start walking, provided no other information. It was dark, and a meteorologist has testified that the temperature was about -20 C and, with the wind, felt much colder.

"I was very scared. I wanted to have help from someone, but there was no one," he said.

Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel, who is no relation to Yash Patel, have pleaded not guilty to charges related to organizing several illegal crossings of Indian nationals from Manitoba into Minnesota in late 2021 and early 2022.

On Jan. 19, 2022, U.S. border patrol agents found a van and several adults migrants in rural Minnesota. One had a backpack with children's clothing and diapers, which prompted another search.

Hours later, RCMP found the bodies of the family -- Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben Patel, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik. The boy's body was cradled in his father's arms. Patel is a common name in India and the family is not related to others involved in the trial.

The jury was shown text and social media messages sent between two cellphones registered to Shand and a phone number that matches one that Harshkumar Patel submitted when he applied for residency in the U.S.

In one exchange in December 2021, a message from Shand's phone says it was "cold as hell." It's followed by, "They going to be alive when they get here?"

On the other phone, a response says a location would be sent.

A criminal analyst with Homeland Security Investigations presented other messages extracted from phone records as well as bank deposits that show money was put into an account that belonged to Shand and his wife.

Shand's lawyers have argued he was simply a taxi driver who was unaware he was doing anything illegal until the day the family died.

Patel's lawyers have said he was misidentified as a participant in the human smuggling ring.

Messages shown in court Wednesday show Shand exchanged many messages and phone calls overnight and into the morning with the phone that prosecutors say belonged to Patel.

At 3:17 a.m., Shand received a message saying, "You stuck?" The reply: "Still stuck."

Shand was then instructed to turn his vehicle lights on and off, "so that they can see" and was later told to try to drive further to find people. He was sent an image of a map with the border circled.

"All good?" read a message sent to Shand at 7:33 a.m.

"No. No one yet."

The trial earlier heard from Rajinder Paul Singh, who testified he worked as a human smuggler for eight years, mostly getting people across the border between British Columbia and Washington state, for a man named Fenil Patel, who is also not related to the family who died.

Singh said Patel told him he had received a call from the family while on their trek, and they said it was too cold to continue. Singh said Patel told the family to turn around and he would have someone pick them up where they started, but it was a lie because there was no one there.

Indian authorities said last year they were working to extradite Patel and another Canadian to face charges in that country.

Singh's testimony for the prosecution was challenged by defence lawyers, who suggested he was co-operating for special treatment. Singh told court he has three convictions for smuggling and fraud and is facing deportation.

"What you want is to not go back to prison and to stay (in the U.S.)," said Thomas Plunkett, a lawyer for Harshkumar Patel.

   This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.