A Minnesota jury has found two men guilty on human smuggling charges in a case where an Indian family froze to death in Manitoba while trying to cross into the U.S. at the Canada–U.S. border in 2022, reported the Globe and Mail on Friday.

Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel, who used the alias "Dirty Harry," were both convicted on four counts related to delivering unauthorized individuals into the U.S., then transporting them at a profit, reported the Globe.

The family was found 12 metres from the U.S. border. They had called for help.

“This trial exposed the unthinkable cruelty of human smuggling and of those criminal organizations that value profit and greed over humanity,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger.

“To earn a few thousand dollars, these traffickers put men, women and children in extraordinary peril ... a father, mother and two children froze to death in sub-zero temperatures on the Minnesota-Canadian border.

“The words ‘immoral depravity’ are the best that I have to describe the conduct that led to this terrible, terrible result.”

Sentencing dates were suggested for March, reported the Globe.

According to the Government of Canada (GOC), smuggled individuals are usually free once they arrive at their country of choice.

"In contrast, trafficked persons have their liberty curtailed and are forced to provide their labour or service," says the GOC on a website.

Due to secrecy, there aren't reliable statistics on the number of migrants who are smuggled each year, wrote the Migration Data Portal in 2024.

"According to UNODC estimates, at a minimum 2.5 million migrants were smuggled in 2016 in exchange for an estimated USD 5-5.7 billion."

Smuggling frequently costs migrants signifiant amounts of money, says the Department of Homeland Security. Victims often pay more for certain kinds of transportation.

"For example, a person may pay extra money for transport in a tractor-trailer because the chance of making it across the border is greater in a truck than it is on foot," wrote DHS in 2024.

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