(Winnipeg) US investigators believe the deaths of four people, including a baby and a teenager, whose bodies were found in Manitoba, near the US border, are linked to a larger human trafficking operation.
Updated yesterday at 9:32 p.m.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota said Steve Shand, 47, was charged with human trafficking after the bodies were discovered in Manitoba and seven Indian nationals in the United States.
Court documents filed Wednesday in support of Mr Shand’s arrest allege that one of the individuals spent a significant amount of money to come to Canada on a fraudulent student visa.
“The investigation into the deaths of the four people in Canada is ongoing, as well as an investigation into a larger human trafficking operation of which (Steve) Shand is suspected of being a part,” the special agent said. John Stanley Homeland Security Investigations, in court documents.
According to the documents, a US Border Patrol officer in North Dakota intercepted a van just south of the border on Wednesday. Mr Shand was driving and court documents allege he was with two undocumented Indian nationals.
Around the same time, the documents indicate that five other people had been spotted by law enforcement in the nearby snow. The group, also made up of Indian nationals, told officers they had been marching for more than 11 hours in freezing conditions.
A woman repeatedly stopped breathing as she was taken to hospital. Court documents indicate that she will have to have one hand partially amputated. A man was also hospitalized with frostbite but later discharged from hospital.
One of the men in the group was carrying a backpack containing baby supplies. Court documents show he told officers the bag belonged to a family who split from the group overnight.
Four bodies were found Wednesday in Manitoba near the border town of Emerson. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers believe the four people froze to death as they attempted to cross the border between the United States and Canada, in polar weather and a blizzard.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, they are a family of four Indian nationals who were suddenly separated from their group crossing the border irregularly.
RCMP say US authorities first informed them that a small, distinct group of people had entered the United States in the vicinity of Emerson, Manitoba.
However, this group had baby items in their possession, although there was no baby among them. Authorities then suspected that other people might be missing behind, RCMP said.
Too cold for winter clothes
Canadian police then searched the area on Wednesday and found the bodies of an adult man and woman and a baby, about ten meters from the border. The body of a teenager was later found a little further.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy said Thursday at a press conference that the victims were wearing warm winter clothing, but not enough to save them from the intense cold.
“This is an absolute and heartbreaking tragedy,” Commissioner MacLatchy said Thursday. We are very concerned that this crossing attempt may have been facilitated in some way and that these people, including an infant, were left to fend for themselves in the midst of a blizzard while the temperature hovered around -35°C with the wind,” she said.
“These victims had to deal not only with the cold, but also with endless fields, high snow banks and total darkness. »
RCMP said the bodies were found on the Canadian side of the border, about 10 km east of the Emerson border crossing. The search for possible survivors or other victims continued Wednesday evening and the police continued Thursday to patrol this very snowy sector, with snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles, indicated the RCMP.
Less common passages
Border crossings into Canada on foot increased in 2016, following the election of Donald Trump. In December, two men lost fingers to severe frostbite after being caught in a blizzard while walking from the United States to Manitoba. A few months later, a woman died of hypothermia near the border on the American side.
In 2019, a pregnant woman crossing the border was rescued after she got stuck in a snowdrift and gave birth.
Emerson-Franklin Warden Dave Carlson said the number of people crossing the border outside the border crossing has dropped significantly in recent years. He was surprised to learn of the four deaths on Thursday.
It has been extremely cold the past few days, Mr Carlson said. The area where the bodies were found is far enough away that people can’t see city lights, he said, and it would be easy to get disoriented.