(FOX 9) - Human smuggling charges have been filed against a Florida man after the deaths of a family of four near Minnesota's border with Canada this week.According to Minnesota U.S.
Attorney Charles Kovats, 47-year-old Steve Shand, of Florida, was charged on Wednesday for the case.The U.S. Attorney says Shand was driving a 15-passenger van parked just a mile south of the Canadian border between entry points in Pembina, North Dakota and Lancaster, Minnesota.Shand was identified and border agents later determined two passengers in the van were undocumented Indians.
As Shand was taken into custody, agents spotted five other Indian nationals walking a quarter-mile south of the border towards the spot Shand had been parked.
They told agents they were expecting to be picked up by someone and estimated they had been walking eleven hours in the cold.One of the five people had a backpack belonging to another group.