Federal prosecutors plan to argue at a Minnesota trial that two men were part of a criminal network stretching from India to Canada that smuggled families seeking better lives in the United States.

On the last night of their lives, Jagdish Patel, his wife and their two young children tried to slip into the U.S. across a near-empty stretch of the Canadian border.

Nearly three years after an Indian family of four froze to death in Canada during an ill-fated attempt to enter the US, two men are facing trial, accused of trying to help smuggle them across the border. It was a backpack with child’s clothing and toys that first worried US Border Patrol agents.

Two men are accused of helping illegally smuggle Indian nationals across the U.S.-Canada border and into Minnesota, including four members of an Indian family who froze to death in 2022.

Two men are set to stand trial almost three years after an Indian family of four froze to death attempting to cross the Canadian-U.S. border.

A long-awaited trial in Minnesota is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection for two men accused of helping smuggle people across the U.S.-Canada border, including four members of an Indian family who froze to death in Manitoba as they tried to make it across in blizzard conditions.

Jury selection is underway in the trial of two men accused of smuggling migrants across the Canada-U. S. border. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand are accused of being part of operation that brought people from India to Canada,