Human traffickers sentenced in freezing deaths of 4 Indian nationals [Video]

Two human traffickers were sentenced Wednesday for their roles in a smuggling operation that resulted in the 2022 deaths of four Indian nationals, including a three-year-old and an 11-year-old, the US Department of Justice said.

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 United States.

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,” justice officials said.

In January 2022, amid severe weather, Patel and Shand attempted to smuggle 11 Indian nationals from Canada into the United States on foot, the DOJ said, adding the recorded wind chill temperature was -37.8 degrees Celsius (-36 degrees Fahrenheit).

A US Border Patrol agent found …