New York, May 29 An Indian-origin man who was the mastermind of a human-smuggling scheme that resulted in the death of a family of four trying to enter the US illegally from Canada was sentenced to just over ten years in prison.
Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, was given ten years and one month by federal Judge John Tunheim in Minnesota, who sentenced his accomplice, Steve Anthony Shand, 50, to six years and six months.
Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, and Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 37, and their children, Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel, 11, and Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, 3, from Dingucha in Gujarat, froze to death on January 19, 2022, when they were illegally trying to enter the US in a scheme run by Harshkumar Patel.
The temperature in the area along Manitoba Province's border with Minnesota was minus 35 degrees on that day.
Tunheim on Wednesday said the smugglers exploited the victims and callously did nothing to save them.
A jury -- a panel of ordinary citizens -- that heard the case under the US legal system found them guilty last November.
Acting federal prosecutor Lisa Kirkpatrick said, "Every time I think about this case, I think about this family -- including two beautiful little children -- who the defendants left to freeze to death in a blizzard."
Seven others who were in the group that the smugglers were taking across the border survived and were rescued and arrested by US authorities.
One of the survivors, Yash Patel, testified during the trial that they had been dropped off on the Canadian side and told to walk directly in a straight line in blinding snow to where there would be a van waiting on the US side.
Two persons found the van driven by Shand, and US officials encountered them and discovered five others stranded in the area -- one of whom had to be airlifted to a hospital in a serious condition.
The bodies of the family that died were found on the Canadian side by authorities.
In the scheme run by Harshkumar Patel, people, mainly from Gujarat, would get visas to Canada and cross into the US along the border that was not as heavily protected as the southern border with Mexico.
The death of the family drew attention to the smuggling across the Canadian border.
US President Donald Trump announced in February that he was imposing a 25 per cent tariff on Canada for its failure to stop illegal immigration to the US.
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