Accused human smuggler dubbed Dirty Harry on trial after family including 3 year-old boy freezes to death at Canada border
Do you feel lucky, punk?An accused human smuggler nicknamed “Dirty Harry” is set to stand trial Monday for the deaths of an Indian family with two young children, including a 3-year-old, who froze to death trying to cross the northern border into the US.School teachers Jagdish Patel and his wife Vaishaliben, along with their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi and 3-year-old son Dharmik, attempted to walk across the US-Canadian border with a group of other migrants in temperatures as low as minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit on Jan.19, 2022 — a treacherous journey allegedly coordinated by defendant Harshkumar Patel and a cohort.Only seven of the 11 migrants in the group crossing into Minnesota from Canada were found alive.
The Patel family was found dead by Canadian authorities — with the dad discovered clutching his 3-year-old son, who was wrapped in a blanket.Harshkumar, 29, known as “Dirty Harry,” after acting icon Clint Eastwood’s cutthroat character in the Hollywood movie franchise, is accused of coordinating the dangerous crossings with the help of Steven Shand, 49.
Harshkumar, no relation to the doomed Patel family, stood guard on the Canadian side of the border and Shand on the US side, according to prosecutors.The two pleaded not guilty to four counts of human smuggling each last year.
Shand is set to stand trial along with Harshkumar on Monday at the federal courthouse in Fergus Falls, Minn.Harshkumar and Shand, both of Deltona, Fla., often spoke about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indian migrants over several weeks past the quiet stretch of the snowy Canadian border, documents from prosecutors allege.“16 degrees cold as hell,” Shand messaged Harshkumar during an earlier trip.
“They going to be alive when they get here?”Harshkumar is said to have recruited Shand at a casino near their homes in Deltona, just north of Orlando.US prosecutors allege Harshkumar and Shand were part of a sprawling operation that smuggles Indian migr...