A Brampton man authorities say is responsible for smuggling an Indian family of four through Canada before they froze to death at the U.S. border three years ago has been arrested.
海角社区官网police arrested Fenilkumar Kantilal Patel, 37, on the morning of Sept. 5 on an extradition warrant issued by the United States. According to court documents obtained by the Star, authorities allege that Patel helped co-ordinate the Canadian arm of the smuggling operation that led to the January 2022 deaths of 39-year-old Jagdish Patel, his 37-year-old wife, Vaishaliben Patel, their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and their three-year-old son, Dharmik.
Prosecutors believe Patel is at risk of fleeing Canada due to the recent convictions of his co-conspirators in the smuggling operation. An application by Canada鈥檚 national public broadcaster, the CBC, seeking information from the RCMP鈥檚 investigative file on Patel is another factor increasing his risk of flight, the records say. If granted, 鈥渟ensitive information鈥 could be released, prosecutors warned.
They said if Patel wanted to flee to India, specifically, the U.S. would have “limited ability” to arrest and extradite him. “While the United States has an extradition treaty with India, the U.S. authorities understand that India is not a co-operative partner in extradition,” prosecutors wrote.聽
Patel, who is not related to the victims, is the third suspect in the high-profile case that has captivated people in the U.S., Canada, and India. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, the convicted ringleader of the human smuggling plot, was sentenced last May in Minnesota to 10 years in prison, while the driver who was supposed to pick the family up, Steve Anthony Shahnd, got 6 and a half years with two years鈥 supervised release.
The U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, at sentencing, called the crime 鈥渆xtraordinary,鈥 saying it resulted in 鈥渄eaths that were clearly avoidable.鈥
The Patel family died of cold exposure while trying to cross the Canada-U.S. border near Emerson, Manitoba, in January 2022.
Courtesy Hemant Shah/Canadian PressPolice in India announced in 2023 that they wanted Patel on charges of culpable homicide and human smuggling in connection with the family鈥檚 deaths. While it was known he was an Indian citizen, court documents reveal he was granted permanent resident status in Canada in September 2018. CBC鈥檚 “The Fifth Estate”聽聽that, during the police investigation, Patel had been living freely in Brampton.聽
In a sworn affidavit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Det. Const. Christopher Wilson of the 海角社区官网police鈥檚 fugitive squad said Patel transported 11 Indian migrants from Winnipeg toward the U.S.-Canada border in a van on the night of Jan. 18, 2022.
When the van got stuck in a remote, snow-covered area, Patel told the passengers to get out and walk across a field, promising they would be picked up, the affidavit alleges. The group began walking in the snow, in dark and windy conditions, causing some of the migrants to get separated. The temperature at the time was approximately -35 C.
The next morning, U.S. authorities found seven of the passengers alive in Minnesota, near the border. The remaining migrants were the Patel family. On the afternoon of Jan. 19, Canadian authorities found the bodies of the father and his two children, huddled together. The mother was found a few metres away.
Patel was identified as a key organizer in the human smuggling operation at trial for his co-conspirators.
According to court documents, a co-operating witness told U.S. authorities that he worked with Patel in the scheme between September 2021 and January 2022. The witness, an Indian national residing in the U.S., said his role was to smuggle immigrants from B.C. into Washington State.
He said travel agents in India would co-ordinate the immigrants’ travel from that country to Canada. Patel would help them obtain Canadian student visas, the witness said, sending the names, photographs and flight information of individuals to be smuggled into the U.S.
Reached by the Star on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Canadian Department of Justice confirmed Patel was arrested earlier this month but declined to disclose further details because “extradition requests are confidential state-to-state communications.” The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the update, referring any questions to its Canadian counterpart.聽
Patel is expected to appear in court virtually later this week.
With files from The Canadian Press
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