The bitter winds that rip through the flat, expressionless Prairies in winter are death personified.
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Facing that horrific onslaught was a family from India, utterly unprepared and cruelly left to their own devices.
Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben Patel, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, died in the snow. The family froze to death in a blizzard on a frigid January night in 2022.
Now, the two alleged smugglers behind the scheme to get the family over the Canada-U.S. border are on trial in Minnesota.
The duo has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to transport aliens causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.
In Canada, they would not face stiff sentences. Maybe three months, maybe three years. Not much.
Human smuggling is a high-profit, low-risk proposition. It is an ideal criminal endeavour because of hopelessly weak laws and a porous border.
The tragic Patel family were among a group of 11 Indian migrants slipping into Minnesota from Manitoba. They were all left to their own devices.
As the five-day trial began in tiny Fergus Falls, Minn., CBC News reported that the feds issued a new passport to an admitted human smuggler after he had been ordered to surrender the document.
He was barred from applying for a new passport but, oh well, that’s just Canada in 2024.
Thesingarasan Rasiah’s new passport was unearthed when the RCMP executed a search warrant on his Montreal area home. The Mounties said Rasiah sat atop an international human smuggling network.
Rasiah had been living at home and is fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet. He had pleaded guilty in February 2023 to breaching the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for smuggling a Sri Lankan from the U.S. into Canada.
The convicted human smuggler was sentenced to a paltry 15 months in jail in September 2023.
In May, Rasiah was arrested again and remains in custody on allegations he was the kingpin of another human smuggling operation. Cops have linked his alleged organization to at least nine deaths on the St. Lawrence River.
His new passport was issued less than two weeks after the March 2023 tragedy.
Former OPP Det. Sgt. Matthew Eamer told CBC News that Rasiah continued his vile operations even after he pleaded guilty to the 2021 human smuggling case.
“He was still operating even though he was on release for the same charges,” Eamer said.
Rasiah has been a frequent flier in the human smuggling file.
He received 52 days in the slammer in 2008 when he was pinched at Pearson Airport carrying two passports that were not in his name.
In 2017, he pleaded guilty in connection to human smuggling in Quebec and copped to “counselling misrepresentation.” He received an 18-month conditional sentence. In other words, not much.
When the Mounties discovered the frozen bodies of the Patel family, they were metres from the border. Jagdish Patel was still holding his son. Their clothes and boots were wholly inadequate.
As for the alleged smugglers, they didn’t get very far. Shand was nabbed driving a 15-passenger van. His lawyer argued he was merely a cab driver mixed up in a terrible business.
But prosecutors argued Harshkumar Patel was the brains, co-ordinating with smugglers in Canada to have the migrants dumped at the border where they would walk across.
So far, the Mounties say there have been no arrests in Canada.
And even if there are future arrests, well, dollars to donuts the human smugglers will get right back to business.
@HunterTOSun