Who is ‘Dirty Harry’, desi man accused of smuggling Indian families to US?

In 2022, the tragic deaths of four Indians, including an infant, on the Canadian side of Manitoba’s southern border with the US shook the world.

Two years later, authorities in the United States have arrested an Indian-origin man in connection with a human trafficking case in which the family was frozen to death .

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News, Harshkumar Patel was arrested at the Chicago airport last week.

Here’s all we know about him and the charges against him.

About Harshkumar Patel, aka ‘Dirty Harry’

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, who also goes by the moniker “Dirty Harry,” “Param Singh,” and “Haresh Rameshlal Patel,” is a Florida resident charged with the “transportation of an illegal alien and conspiracy to bring and attempt to bring an illegal alien to the United States.”

More from Explainers

How ChatGPT is becoming everyone’s BFF and why that’s dangerous This Week in Explainers: How recovering from Gen-Z protests is a Himalayan task for Nepal

According to CBC News, which cited the court documents, he had recruited alleged smuggler Steve Shand, another Florida resident who is awaiting trial in Minnesota’s federal court for transporting illegal migrants.

“Harshkumar was part of an organised human smuggling group that facilitated the illegal entry of Indian nationals into the US,” the police said in their complaint, as per NDTV.

Shand and two migrants were arrested by US border patrol agents in a rented 15-seater passenger van on 19 January 2022, in Minnesota, located south of the Canadian border near Emerson. Shortly after, five other migrants were also apprehended by the border patrol on the same highway.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

Ghaziabad woman dead, pilgrims attacked in bus… How Nepal’s Gen-Z protests turned into a living hell for Indian tourists

Were bodyguards involved in Charlie Kirk’s shooting? The many conspiracies surrounding the killing

Back in India, the latest affidavit claims Harshkumar failed “four times” to obtain a student visa to the US. He tried to convince consular officials that he wanted to pursue further studies there, but his application was not considered credible.

In 2016, Harshkumar, who was finally able to go to Canada, tried to get a visitor visa to New York from the US Consulate in Ottawa, claiming that he was a business management student at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario. However, he was denied the visa for the fifth time.

According to CBC News, investigators believe he crossed into the US illegally three months later, only to return to Canada in 2018. He was then taken to Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) custody.

In the latest development, the next hearing in the case is scheduled for 28 February. However, the CBC reports that it could be transferred to Minnesota.

On the other hand, Shand’s jury trial is also set to begin in Minnesota in March.

Text messages, financial details exposed

The latest affidavit, which also mentions a September 2023 arrest warrant, also revealed details about the night the Patel family died, including texts exchanged between Harshkumar and Shand that show how the smuggling was carried out.

For those unversed, Harshkumar Patel is not related to the Patel family.

In the chats, the duo talked about “arrangements for rental cars, hotels, and payments to Shand.” “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please,” Shand told Harshkumar on the evening of 18 January, the day before the family was found dead, as per the court records.

According to the report, the court documents stated Harshkumar shared Shand the GPS coordinates for the illegal migrants who were to be brought from the Canada-US border — from Emerson, Winnipeg, in Canada, and Pembina, North Dakota, in the US.

“Shand described five total trips he had made to the international border in Minnesota between December 2021 and January 2022, to transport Indian nationals, including the 19 January 2022 trip during which he was arrested,” the affidavit said.

He further told investigators that “he has made a total of approximately $25,000 US in smuggling proceeds” working for the former.

For the Patel family’s smuggling alone, Shand allegedly was paid $2,900 in cash and then paid another $5,000 in cash after his release, the court documents said.

According to The Times of India, Shand is charged with smuggling seven persons from Gujarat illegally, including the four who died of extreme cold weather.

The family frozen to death

Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, his wife Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 37, and their children Vihangi, 11, and three-year-old Dharmik Jagdishkumar, were frozen to death near Emerson, Manitoba, on 19 January 2022.

The Patel family arrived in Toronto on 12 January the same year, their first point of entry into Canada. From there, they made their way to Manitoba and eventually to Emerson, where they died near the border.

TOI reported the police had earlier said no abandoned vehicle was located on the Canadian border, indicating that someone drove the family to the border and then left the scene.

Moreover, the new affidavit also mentioned details linking another alleged smuggler, Fenil Patel (not related to the Patel family), to the incident.

In January, the Indian police accused him of helping transport the family.

He is facing charges in Gujarat of culpable homicide and human smuggling for his alleged role in the death of the Patel family, reported CBC News.

According to the affidavit, convicted human smuggler Rajinder Pal Singh identified Fenil, who resides in Toronto, as one of the people involved in the incident, saying he arranged the trip for the family that died.

Singh was found guilty of human smuggling in May last year and sentenced to 45 months in US federal prison.

With inputs from agencies