Cellphone location records shown to jury in human smuggling trial

By Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press on November 21, 2024.

A lone car enters the US as people block highway 75 with heavy trucks and farm equipment and access to the Canada/US border crossing at Emerson, Man., Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. The prosecution is expecting to wrap up its case today in the trial of two men accused of human smuggling at the border between Manitoba and Minnesota. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. – The jury at a human smuggling trial has seen phone records the prosecution says show the two men accused were carrying 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 several smuggling operations in December 2021 and January 2022.

One of the trips saw a family of four from India freeze to death in a blizzard on Jan. 19, 2022, the day Shand was arrested in a van just south of the border.

A cellular analyst with the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified about records related to phones the prosecution says belonged to the accused men.

The records track two phones the prosecution says belonged to Shand travelling, on multiple occasions, from his hometown in Florida to Minnesota then to an area near the border.

FBI special agent Nicole Lopez says during those trips there were many calls to and from phones the prosecution says belonged to Patel.

Under cross-examination by Shand’s lawyer, Lopez said cell records, which are based on towers used, offer a general location and cannot offer pinpoint accuracy.

Lopez also said the records show who the phones are registered to not who is using them at any given time.

The trial in Fergus Falls, Minn., also heard Thursday from two forensic pathologists, who testified the family found dead in the snow died from hypothermia.

One also said the autopsies were done after a few days because the bodies were too frozen.

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