Human smuggling suspect 'Dirty Harry' arrested following death of Indian family including two children, 11 and three, who froze while walking from Canada to US in -34F conditions

A human smuggling suspect linked to the deaths of a family of four from India who died as they walked into the US from Canada has been arrested more than two years after the tragedy.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, nicknamed 'Dirty Harry' by associates, was arrested on Wednesday in Chicago on human smuggling charges stemming from a warrant issued in September.

Patel allegedly hired Steve Shand of Deltona, Florida, to drive migrants from the Canadian border to the Chicago area.

Shand was at the wheel of a 15-passenger van stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol in North Dakota, just south of the Canadian border, on Jan. 19, 2022.

Authorities who arrested Shand searched the surrounding area and discovered the bodies of Jagdish and Vaishaliben Patel and their children, 11-year-old Vihangi and three-year-old Dharmik, who had frozen to death in the sub-zero conditions.

Pictured: The Patel family, including Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 37, Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel, 11, and Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, three

The family were found close to the US-Canada border after they froze to death in the sub-zero conditions 

Road signage is posted just outside of Emerson, Manitoba, where the bodies were found in the province of Manitoba just 33 feet from the US border

Shand, who allegedly told authorities Patel paid him a total of $25,000 to make five such trips in December 2021 and January 2022, has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges and awaits trial on March 25.

Steve Shand (pictured) 57, from Deltona, Florida has been charged with human smuggling

Authorities who detained him spotted five other people walking in the snow nearby.

All Indian nationals, they told officers they'd been walking for more than 11 hours in frigid blizzard conditions, a complaint in Shand's case said.

One of the men was carrying a backpack that had supplies for a small child in it, and he told officers it belonged to a family who had become separated from the group overnight.

Canadian Mounties began a search and found three bodies of the Patel family together just 33 feet (10 meters) from the border near Emerson, Manitoba, which is on the Red River that separates North Dakota from Minnesota.

The second Patel child was found a short distance away. All apparently died from exposure.

The migrant with the backpack told authorities he had paid the equivalent of $87,000 in U.S. money to an organization in India to set up the move, according to a federal complaint from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Federal prosecutors believe Harshkumar Patel who organized the smuggling operation. A criminal complaint said he used aliases including 'Dirty Harry'.

A border marker between the US and Canada outside of Manitoba

RCMP officers searching the area where the Patel family froze to death after crossing the border from the US near Emerson, Manitoba, Canada

RCMP officers with the Integrated Border Enforcement Team (pictured) found the bodies after receiving concerning information from their counterparts in the US

Patel's attorney, Michael Leonard, said on Monday that so far he's been told very little about the allegations.

'Based upon the fact that, at this point, we have been provided with nothing more than accusations in the form of a Criminal Complaint that recites hearsay statements, we are not in a position to legitimately evaluate the Government's allegations,' Leonard said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Patel is a common name in India and there has been no suggestion that the suspect is related to the family which perished. 

Federal authorities believe Patel himself entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 after he had been refused a U.S. visa at least five times, the complaint said.

Shand told investigators that Patel operates a gambling business in Orange City, Florida, and that he knew him because he gambled there and operated a taxi business that took people there.

The complaint cited cellphone records indicating hundreds of communications between Shand and Patel to work out logistics for illegal trafficking.

One text message from Shand to Patel on Jan. 19, 2022, stated, 'Make sure everyone is dressed for blizzard conditions please.'

The Patel family were discovered in a field north of the US border on January 19, 2022 as temperatures plummeted to as low as -40F near Manitoba, Canada with blowing snow and poor visibility advisories issued on the night of the four's ill-fated trek.

The family, originally from Gujarat, is believed to have made their way into Manitoba from Toronto, where they initially entered Canada on January 12 2022, DailyMail.com previously reported. 

Relatives said the the father of the family worked as a teacher and farmed land they owned  

Ramandeep Grewal, president of the India Association of Manitoba, said the Patels were rumored to have walked for 11 hours, adding: 'You don't expose yourself to that degree of cold for minutes, let alone hours.'

The High Commission of India released a notice with the family's identities after their immediate relatives have been informed.

Police in the western state of Gujarat in India also investigated the deaths and a team, led by a senior consular officer from the Consulate General of India, helped with investigations in Canada.