Jury selection begins in Fergus Falls for two men accused of human trafficking resulting in death

Jury selection for two men accused of human trafficking begins in federal court on Monday. The charges stem from the deaths of the Patel family from India in January 2022.

Jagdish, 39, Vaishaliben, 34, Vihangi, 11, and Dharmik, 3, died while trying to cross the US on foot during a snowstorm. Their bodies were later found by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in a field near Emerson, Manitoba, just meters from the international border.

Steve Shand, 49, and Harshkumar Patel (not a relative), 28, will stand trial for their involvement in an illegal operation in the Indian state of Gujarat. U.S. authorities said it used fake student visas to smuggle migrants from India to British Columbia and then to the United States. Once in the US, they would be transported by car to Chicago to work in a restaurant chain.

Gujarat police told US authorities they suspected the restaurant owner was facilitating the smuggling to find people “who wanted to work in his restaurants at substandard wages.”

U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shand, of Deltona, Florida, after allegedly finding him a mile south of the border transporting two undocumented immigrants from India in a 15-passenger van. Authorities found five others walking nearby. They were all from Gujarat.

Shand allegedly told federal investigators that Harshkumar Patel, an Indian citizen who is in the U.S. illegally and has been living in Florida, recruited him to pick up people from India who crossed the border into Minnesota and take them to Chicago.

According to a previous criminal complaint against Harshkumar Patel, Shand described “a total of five trips he made to the international border in Minnesota in December 2021 and January 2022 to transport Indian nationals.”

For one trip, Harshkumar Patel allegedly paid Shand $3,500 cash upfront and another $8,000 after delivering people to Chicago.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial is expected to last five days.

MPR News correspondent Matt Spic contributed to this story.