Human smuggling trial witness says he was separated from a family hours before they froze to death

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — An Indian national who survived a treacherous trek across the U.S.-Canada border in blizzard conditions testified Wednesday that he got separated from a family of four shortly before they froze to death.

Yash Patel took the stand on the third day of the trial of Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, and Steve Shand, 50, of Florida.

Prosecutors say they put financial profit over human life when they attempted to smuggle Indian migrants across the border into Minnesota over a five-week period in December 2021 and January 2022. They say Patel ran part of the smuggling scheme and recruited Shand as a driver. Both men have pleaded not guilty to four counts related to human smuggling.

Federal prosecutors say a family of four — 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik — froze to death Jan. 19, 2022. Patel is a common Indian surname and the victims were not related to Harshkumar Patel or Yash Patel.

Yash Patel, 23, testified through an interpreter that he got separated from the Patel family and walked alone for five or six hours until he found a van waiting for him, The Canadian Press reported. Prosecutors say that van was driven by Steve Shand.

Witnesses called by the prosecution said conditions were brutal when the victims trudged through vast, snow-filled fields and high winds the night they tried to cross from Canada into the U.S. Windchills dropped into the minus 30s Fahrenheit that January morning and the rural area near the border offers little shelter from the brutal weather.

“It was snowing and it was very windy,” Patel said on the witness stand. “I was very scared. I wanted to have help from someone, but there was no one.”

Shand’s attorneys have said their client and the migrants were duped by Harshkumar Patel and the smuggling network. Shand believed he was hired by Patel to do legal work as a taxi driver, they said, pointing out that human smuggling rings often outsource some of their work to unwitting participants.

Patel’s attorneys have argued that Shand’s defense is antagonistic and prejudicial against his client. They have also said Patel came to America to escape poverty and build a better life for himself before being unjustly accused of crimes he didn’t commit.

Yash Patel said his journey to enter the U.S. illegally began when he arrived in Toronto, Canada, in December 2021 and was sent to Vancouver, then back to Toronto, then to a house in Winnipeg, The Canadian Press reported. He and a group of other Indian nationals, including a couple and two children, were loaded into a van at the house and taken to the border. But the van got stuck, and the migrants were told to get out and walk in a straight line until they came across another vehicle, he added.

At some point, he got separated from the group and braved the conditions alone. After hours of walking, he made it to a van that prosecutors said was driven by Shand. A U.S. Border Patrol agent later spotted the van, pulled it over, identified Shand as the driver and arrested him along with Yash Patel and another passenger.

Federal prosecutors say Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand tried to smuggle migrants across the border as part of a sprawling international smuggling ring. Rajinder Singh, a man who has already been convicted of human smuggling, was part of same smuggling ring as Patel and Shand, they have argued. Singh testified on Tuesday that he shuttled more than 500 Indian migrants across the U.S.-Canada border over four years and made over $400,000 in the scheme.