Indian man gets 10-year prison term in US for human trafficking

A 29-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, along with a co-conspirator, after a jury convicted them for their role in "large-scale human-smuggling operation" that led to the deaths of four Indian nationals, including a three-year-old girl, in 2022.

- Shashank Mattoo

NEW DELHI:

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, was sentenced to over 10 years in prison for organizing logistics and co-conspirator Steve Anthony Shand, 50, was sentenced to over six years for picking up migrants in the US.

A jury convicted the duo for their work in a "large-scale human smuggling operation that brought Indian nationals to Canada on fraudulent student visas and then smuggled them into the United States", the US Justice Department said.

"Patel organized the logistics of smuggling aliens from Manitoba, Canada, into United States, with other co-conspirators, and Shand picked up aliens just south of Canadian border in the United States and drove them to Chicago," the statement said.