Suspects Plead Not Guilty in Human Smuggling Case Involving Family’s Death at Border

A view of the landscape outside the hamlet of St. Vincent, Minn., looking north towards the Canada-U.S. border, is shown on Jan. 25, 2022, not far from where RCMP officers recovered the bodies of four unidentified Indian nationals. The Canadian Press/James McCarten

A man accused of helping smuggle people across the U.S.-Canada border into Minnesota, including four members of an Indian family who froze to death in 2022, pleaded not guilty on March 27 to seven counts of human smuggling.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, who prosecutors say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” entered his plea during a brief teleconference with U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo Brisbois of Duluth.