Florida man charged with human smuggling after four bodies found near Canada-U.S. border

A Florida man has been charged with human smuggling after the bodies of four people, including a baby, were found in Manitoba near the Canada-U.S. border.

A Florida man has been charged with human smuggling after the bodies of four people, including a baby, were found in Manitoba near the Canada-U.S. border.

According to the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota, 47-year-old Steve Shand was arrested on Wednesday by U.S. Border Patrol for smuggling undocumented foreign nationals.

The charges against him have not been proven in court.

The United States Attorney's Office said, on Wednesday U.S. Border Patrol stopped Shand, who was driving a white-coloured, fifteen-passenger van in a rural area less than two kilometres south of the border. The release alleges there were two undocumented people in the van.

According to a release from the United States Attorney's Office, while Shand and the two passengers were being taken to the Pembina Border Patrol Station in North Dakota, five more people were found just south of the border walking in the direction of where Shand had been arrested.

The release said the five people told officers they had crossed the border expecting to be picked up by someone.

The release said one of the members of the group was carrying a backpack with children’s clothes, a diaper, toys, and some children’s medication inside. The release said the man told officers he had been carrying the backpack for a family of four that had walked with the group earlier but became separated during the night.