US authorities on Thursday charged a man with mortal smuggling of Indian citizens from Canada, the day after four people, including a baby were plant firmed to death in a remote part of Canada close to the Minnesota border.
The US attorney’s office in Minnesota said 47- time-old Steve Shand had been arrested just south of the border on Wednesday while driving two undocumented Indian citizens US border command agents soon came across five further Indians traveling on bottom, one of whom was carrying a pack belonging to a family of four who had come separated from the group as they all tried to cross the border.
They advised Canadian police who plant the victims-a man, a woman, a teenage boy and a baby- about 40 bases (12 measures) from the frontier with Minnesota. First suggestions are that they failed from exposure to the deep freeze.
“These victims faced not only the cold rainfall, but also endless fields, large mountains and complete darkness,”Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy told a televised news conference in Winnipeg,Manitoba.Wind bite had driven down the temperature to minus 35 C ( disadvantage 31 F), she said.
The US attorney’s office said in a statement that the four victims had tentatively been linked as the missing Indian family The five Indian citizens explained they had walked across the border awaiting to be picked up by someone and estimated they had been walking around for over 11 hours Shand has been charged with one count of mortal smuggling. He’s next due in court on January 24. Reuters
