A man accused by the police in India to help smuggled to a family of four by Canada just before they freeze until death on the Manitoba side of the United States border more than three years ago..
Phenyl Patel was arrested “in accordance with an extradition request from the United States of America,” said a spokesman for the Canadian Justice Department to CBC News in an email on Monday.
Spokeswoman Katelyn Moores said that the department could not reveal more details: “As extradition requests are confidential state to state communications.”
A spokesman for the United States Department of Justice declined to comment on the update. CBC News also contacted RCMP on Monday.
Indian police claimed that Patel was one of the two men who helped transport the family to the border during a blind snow storm and freezing temperatures in January 2022.
The Patel family, unrelated to Phenyl Patel, died of hypothermia while trying to cross Minnesota, near Emerson, man. The frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, his 37 -year -old wife, Vaishali, his 11 -year -old daughter, Hangangi, and his three -year -old son, Dharmik, were found just 12 meters from the US border.
In January 2023, manner and human smuggling charges against Phenyl Patel were announced in the Indian state of Gujarat for his alleged role in the death of the family. Indian police claimed that Patel and another man directed the Canadian arm of the smuggling network, coordinating and controlling the last days of the Patel family trip to the border.
In May 2023, the Indian authorities said they had The process to extradite began Patel and another accused man in the case.
While the Indian media reported that Patel has lived or flee The fifth estate I found him living a quiet life in a suburb to the outskirts of Toronto.
Look | The Fifth is phenyl patel questions:
Steven D’Ouza, host of the fifth farm, questions Phenyl Patel about the accusations of the Indian Police that he was one of the smugglers responsible for transporting the Patel family (without relation) with the border with Canada-United States united in January 2022.
Phenyl Patel did not respond to several attempts to interview him more than a year ago. When a crew of The fifth estate questioned him in front of his houseHe turned and entered without any response.
In a previous interview, Chaitanya Mandlik, attached commissioner of the State Police of Gujarat, the branch of crimes of Ahmedabad, said the police requested the help of the RCMP to find Phenyl Patel and arrest it in Canada so that it could be returned to India to face charges. But it was not clear at that time if an official request had been made.
A spokesman from the Canadian Justice Department said that they could not confirm or deny any potential extradition request “until the courts made it public”, while RCMP at that time would not specifically comment on the case of Phenyl Patel.
Details revealed during the contrabandist’s trial
Patel’s name appeared several times last year during the Minnesota trial of two men later convicted of their roles in the contraband operation that involves the Patel family.
Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel (either related to the Patel family) were declared guilty by a jury in November 2024 of charges related to bringing unauthorized people to the United States, transporting them and taking advantage of it.
A special national security agent testified that car rental records showed that Phenyl Patel rented a vehicle in Toronto on January 17, 2022, and led him to Winnipeg, leaving him there the next day, the same day that the Patel family was taken to the border.
Another witness, the condemned human smuggler Rajinder Pal Singh, told the trial that Phenyl Patel was a smuggling organizer on the Canadian side of the border. He testified that the Patel family called Patel for help the night they died, but none came.
The prosecutors argued that Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand were co-conspirators in a scheme to take Indian migrants to Canada in student visas, for strong sums of money, before leaving them on the border and tell them to walk.
Shand was arrested near the border, at the same time that the Patel family died, with other Indian citizens in the truck he was driving. Harshkumar Patel, accused of coordinating smuggling and hiring Shand, was arrested later in Chicago.
Harshkumar Patel was sentenced in May to just over 10 years in prison, while Shand received a sentence of six and a half years, followed by a supervised liberation period. Both men then presented notices of appeals related to their convictions and sentences.
‘Logical’ to start with positions in the USA, says the lawyer
Steven Tress, a Toronto lawyer who practices criminal and immigration law, said he believes that someone as phenyl patel was extradited to the United States to face the charges there first instead of on the Canadian side.
That is partly due to the fact that the smuggling ring that led the Patel family to the border meant bringing people to the United States, and because it is where two other people, Shand and Harshkumar Patel, have already been convicted.
“So there would have had to have been a discussion between the two countries about the best way to address this,” said Tress, and added that there is a “really easy extradition treaty” between Canada and the United States.
“If the United States was not interested in prosecuting it, it would almost definitely be accused here. But if you are accused here and convicted and you have to comply with your sentence here, that will delay any prosecution in the United States.”
Tress also said that Phenyl Patel potentially accused in the United States “does not prevent Canada from coppering this person at some point in the future.”
“It’s just that it seems more logical to start with the United States,” he said.
An alleged human smuggler who lives in Brampton, Ontario, has been arrested and is waiting for extradition to the United States, phenyl patel is sought in India for allegedly helping to transport an Indian family from four to the border between the United States and Canada in 2022, just before they freeze.
