MINNEAPOLIS – American investigators say they have linked the deaths of four people in a family from India to a larger human smuggling operation. John Stanley, a special agent with the U.S. Homeland Security agency, said that at least one of the group stranded in a blizzard had paid “a significant amount of money” to come to Canada with a fraudulent student visa. The details were in a federal complaint. against the driver of a 15-passenger van that was roaming backroads that night, ostensibly to pick up Indians eager to get into the United States. Two undocumented Indian nationals Indians were in his van when the driver was stopped. According to the criminal complaint, all the foreign nationals found on the U.S. side spoke Gujarati, the official language of the west India state of Guajarat, which further suggested a smuggling operation operated out of India. The driver, Steve Shand, 47, of Delano, Florida, has been charged with human smuggling. Authorities allege i that Shand likely has been involved in other illegal border crossings, including two in December.
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