Phone and bank records shown to jury in human trafficking case

FERGUS FALLS — Phone, banking and other information was presented to the jury in the human trafficking case Thursday; prosecution said it showed the two defendants carried out plans to sneak people across the Canada-U.S. border between Manitoba and Minnesota.

Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel are accused of participating in various smuggling operations in December 2021 and January 2022.

On one of the alleged trips, a family of four from India froze to death in a blizzard on Jan. 19, 2022, the same day Shand was arrested in a van just south of the border.

A cellular analyst with the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified about recordings that tracked two phones allegedly belonging to Shand as he traveled multiple times from his hometown in Florida to Minnesota and then to an area near the border.

FBI special agent Nicole Lopez said that during those trips, numerous calls were made to phones that the prosecution said belonged to Patel.

Under cross-examination by Shand’s attorney, Lopez said cell records based on the towers used provide a general location and cannot provide pinpoint accuracy.

Shand’s attorney also said the evidence did not prove Shand used the phone.

“You don’t know who actually has the cell phone at any given time, do you?” Aaron Morrison asked.

“That’s right,” Lopez replied.

The hearing in Fergus Falls, Minn., on Thursday also heard from two forensic pathologists who testified that the family, a couple and their two children, who were found dead in a Manitoba field near the border, died of hypothermia.

A pathologist said autopsies had to be done a few days later because the bodies were so frozen.

Shand’s lawyers said he was previously a taxi driver who picked people up for other defendants and did not realize he had done anything wrong until the day he was arrested.

Patel’s lawyers said their client had been misidentified as part of an international smuggling ring.

Prosecutors spent some time Thursday connecting Patel to similar names on various documents.

The phone allegedly belonging to Patel is listed under Dirty Harry on the phone allegedly belonging to Shand. Phone company records show that one of the phones allegedly belonging to Patel was registered to Haresh Patel.

A special agent with Homeland Security testified that the phone number attributed to Dirty Harry was the same phone number used by Harshkumar Patel in a government document four years ago. The Dirty Harry number was also used to open a bank account under the name Haresh Patel in 2018, special agent Manuel Jimenez said.

Jimenez also presented bank records showing a large sum of money was deposited during the 2022 border crossings into an account Shand allegedly maintained in his hometown in Florida.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.

Steve Lambert, Canadian Press