Deltona resident Steve Shand, 47, was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol near the U.S.-Canada border Tuesday, Jan. 18, and has been charged with human smuggling.
According to the Minnesota StarTribune, authorities said Shand was believed to have been helping 11 Indian nationals illegally enter the United States. Four people thought to have been traveling with Shand were found frozen to death in a vehicle by Border Patrol officials “just inside the Canadian side of the international border,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.
The four dead include a family of “a man, a woman, a teenage boy and the baby,” the StarTribune reports.
In a federal criminal complaint issued, the StarTribune continues, Shand’s trip to the U.S.-Canada border was his second so far this year. During both trips, he rented a van like the 15-passenger van he was driving when he was arrested.
Shand is scheduled for a detention hearing at 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24, before U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota Magistrate Judge Hildy Bowbeer.
