Human smuggler ‘Dirty Harry’ arranged at least 35 illegal trips for Indians

Ahmedabad: Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, better known by the alias ‘Dirty Harry', began operating a human smuggling network from Indrad village in Kalol taluka of Gandhinagar in May 2021. The village is 17km from Dingucha, the hometown of the Patel family, four members of which died while crossing the Canada-US border on Jan 19, 2022.Sources said ‘Dirty Harry' began reading about smuggling routes and methods in 2014, gradually moving into active operations during the Covid pandemic. By 2021, he established connections with other accused, including Fenil Patel from Surat and Bhavesh Patel from Kalol. All three reportedly worked for a Punjab-based human smuggler.Harry's first major human smuggling assignment involved Jagdish Patel, whose family approached him seeking to enter the US. Patel, operating from Chicago, entered the United States on a visitor visa and was engaged to a US citizen. He stayed with his in-laws and was reportedly trying to obtain citizenship. He hired a driver, Steve Shand from Deltona, Florida, to pick up migrants on the Minnesota side of the border and transport them to the Chicago area.Sources in Indian police said Harry arranged at least 35 illegal trips for Indian nationals, most of them from Mehsana district. According to sources, Harry studied in Canada and lived in New York and Chicago since 2018, before re-entering the US illegally. Before that, Harry had a long record of failed US visa applications. In 2014, his student visa was denied twice. In 2016, he applied for a tourist visa from St Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario, which was also denied. Three months after the rejection, he entered the US without documentation but returned when enforcement increased.His final entry into the US was in 2018, where he stayed until Feb 2021. Harry then shifted to planning and managing illegal border crossings, allegedly charging high fees for his services. Harry was arrested at the Chicago airport on Feb 20, 2024, by US authorities in connection with the Dingucha family deaths. He was convicted in Nov 2024 and sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison for his role in the human smuggling operation that resulted in the deaths of the four Indian migrants.