Manitoba border deaths: phone, banking records shown to jury [Video]

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. –

Closing arguments have been made in the trial of two men accused of smuggling migrants across the border between Manitoba and Minnesota.

Prosecutor Michael McBride told the jury Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel cared more about money than people’s lives, and sent migrants out walking for hours in deadly weather.

The men are accused of being part of several operations at the border in December 2021 and January 2022.

On Jan. 19, 2022, a family of four from India, including two children, froze to death while trying to walk across the border in a blizzard.

A lawyer for Patel told the jury the accused has been wrongly identified and is not the same person that was calling and texting about the trips in phone records produced by the government.

Shand’s lawyer told the jury his client was a naive participant who made money driving taxis and didn’t know he was …