U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found the frozen bodies of four Indian nationals after the arrest of a man on human smuggling charges.
Crime Online reports agents arrested Steve Shand, 47, of Florida after stopping his van across the Canadian border from North Dakota.
They found two undocumented Indian nationals inside the van. They would later run across five other Indian nationals who said they were expecting to be picked up. They learned that the group had become separated from four others.
After further questioning, agents called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which quickly launched a search for the four. Hours later, the RCMP found the four dead.
According to Linkedpaper, the four included a baby. All four died of exposure from extreme cold weather.
“This is a grave tragedy. An Indian consular team is traveling today from @IndiainToronto to Manitoba to coordinate and help,” tweeted India’s High Commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria. “We will work with Canadian authorities to investigate these disturbing events.”
India’s external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar described himself as being “shocked” by the news.
“Shocked by the report that 4 Indian nationals, including an infant have lost their lives at the Canada-US border. Have asked our Ambassadors in the US and Canada to urgently respond to the situation,“ he told Linkedpaper.
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