WINNIPEG – American authorities have made another arrest in an alleged human smuggling operation where a family from India froze to death trying to enter the United States from Manitoba in January of 2022.

A court document filed in Illinois says Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel faces a number of charges including transportation of an illegal alien.

According to documents filed with the US District Court in Minnesota, as well as an arrest warrant, Patel is alleged to have recruited, directed and paid a Florida man to pick up Indian nationals after they illegally crossed the border from Canada.

The frozen bodies of a man, his wife, their 11 year old daughter and three year old son were found in a field near Emerson, just metres from the border, two years ago.