Human smuggling trial witness says he shuttled over 500 Indian migrants into the US

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — A man convicted of human smuggling testified Tuesday that he shuttled more than 500 Indian migrants across the U.S.-Canada border over four years as part of an international smuggling ring that prosecutors said led to the deaths of a family of four.

Rajinder Singh, 51, said he made over $400,000 as part of the sprawling scheme that included two men who are now on trial for human smuggling. Federal prosecutors said he preyed on Indian nationals’ dreams of a better life in the U.S., just like the men on trial.

Singh took the stand on the second 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. 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.

Singh said he never met Patel or Shand, but he heard about them through a high-ranking member of the smuggling operation. Singh provided an inside account of how the international smuggling ring allegedly works and who it targets.

Singh said most of the people he smuggled came from Gujarat state. He said the migrants would often pay smugglers about $100,000 to get them from India to the U.S., where they would work to pay off their debts at low-wage jobs in cities around the country. Singh said the smugglers would run their finances through “hawala,” an informal money transfer system that relies on trust.

Singh entered the U.S. illegally three times after getting deported following convictions on multiple federal charges. He said he is testifying because it is the right thing to do.

“They are playing with people’s lives,” Singh said of the smugglers. “People died.”

Patel’s attorneys suggested that Singh is testifying because he doesn’t want to go back to India and face potential retribution from those running the smuggling ring. In exchange for his testimony, Singh’s deportation will be deferred and he will be given a temporary work permit.

After getting people into Canada with student visas, Singh said he usually smuggled people from British Columbia into Washington state, where he would order Uber drivers to pick up the migrants. But in late 2021, the operation’s leaders changed their plans. They began sending people to cross the border into Minnesota instead of Washington state.

Federal prosecutors say the 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.

The other witnesses called by the prosecution on Tuesday 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.

Daryl Ritchison, a climatologist and director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network, told jurors that anytime weather conditions and windchills drop into the minus 30s Fahrenheit, frostbite can occur within 10 minutes.

Troy Larson, a mechanic who works at a compressor station just south of the border, said he helped dig Shand’s 15-passenger white van out of a ditch that frigid January morning. After the van drove away, he saw a border patrol vehicle pull up alongside it.

Border patrol agent Christopher Oliver testified that he was driving that vehicle. He said that in the weeks prior, he had seen footprints in the snow and suspected people had been trying to cross the border. He said he spotted the van, pulled it over, identified Shand as the driver and arrested him along with two passengers.

One of those passengers, Yash Patel, is expected to testify this week.

One of Shand’s attorneys, Lisa Lopez, asked the jury to differentiate between the two defendants. She said Shand was an unwitting participant in the smuggling ring.

“Mr. Shand was used by Mr. Patel. And being used does not equate under the law to being guilty of conspiracy,” Lopez said.

Lopez said Shand and the migrants were duped by Patel and the smuggling network. Aaron Morrison, Shand’s other attorney, said his client never attempted to conceal his identity while working with Patel, as those involved in human smuggling normally do. He also pointed out that human smuggling rings often outsource some of their work to unwitting participants.

On Tuesday, Thomas Leinenweber, Patel’s attorney, argued that Shand’s defense is antagonistic and prejudicial against his client.

Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five trips. They filed court documents showing Harshkumar Patel was in the U.S. illegally after being refused a visa at least five times and that he recruited Shand at a casino near their homes in Deltona, Florida, just north of Orlando.

The morning the Patel family died, Singh said he woke up to a slew of missed calls from one of his associates in the smuggling ring. He called the man, who sounded panicked.

“’Our work got screwed up. People got caught,’” he recounted his associate telling him.

Later on, Singh said, the man told him that a family had died.

Michael Goldberg, The Associated Press