Florida Man Charged With Human Smuggling After 4 Migrants Found Froze To Death In 2022

A Florida man pleaded not guilty to federal charges in connection with human smuggling last year after four migrants from India were found dead near the Canadian border and have pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

Florida Man Charged With Human Smuggling After 4 Migrants Found Froze To Death In 2022 (PHOTO: Global News)

Human Smuggling Was Charged With The Florida Man

Steve Shand 48 years old waived the Court records showing that on Friday he entered the court with the plea in a hearing for his arraignment held via video conference concerning his human smuggling case that occurred last year but long-awaited arraignment in Duluth, Minn.

Shand said he is not guilty when Minnesota Magistrate Judge Leo Brisbois asked how he was pleading to the charges against him.

In January 2022, Federal authorities arrested Shand in a remote area of northern Minnesota, after Border Patrol officers encountered him with two Indian nationals in a rented passenger van and discovered 4 human bodies who had frozen to death during a blizzard.

AP News reported that a federal criminal complaint against Steve Shand, that the dead were a family of four, including an infant and a teenager, and were identified by surviving immigrants as being Indian nationals.

Five other Indian nationals were also discovered on foot in Minnesota and two more were found in a van owned by Shand, officials said.

Shand is charged with human smuggling by illegally transporting two people into the country. Shand’s trial has been scheduled for July 17 but is subject to shift. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the court dealt with a backlog and keeping stick measurements and keeping from public gatherings in courtrooms, so Shand’s arraignment was postponed 10 times.

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Steve Shand Was Not Charged To The Death Of The Migrants

Winnipeg News reported that the criminal complaint against Shand stated that one of the immigrants was found walking while carrying a backpack containing children’s clothes, toys, and a diaper that he said belonged to a family of four that had become separated from the larger during the night. He informed authorities about his experience with Shand’s human trafficking that he and his family were expecting someone to pick them up on the other side and they have been walking for almost 12 hours.

The immigrants were identified by his relatives as Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife Vaishaliben, 37, and their two children: daughter Vihangi, 11, and three-year-old son Dharmik.

Police in India say they have since charged three men who allegedly acted as immigration agents for the family and provided them with paperwork.

Furthermore, any of the death of the migrant Shand has not been charged with it.  He was released last year without bond but ordered to obey several conditions.