Bodies of four people, believed to be Indians, were found about 30 to 40 feet from the U.S. border, in a remote area six miles east of Emerson, Manitoba, Canada.
The authorities believe a family of four, including an infant, froze to death in Manitoba, Canada. A Florida man, arrested while driving a van nearby, was charged with human smuggling.
All four have been tentatively identified as members of a family who may have been victims of a human-smuggling operation, authorities said.
In a news conference on Friday, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his government was working with the United States to prevent people from taking unacceptable risks being smuggled across the border.
Trudeau said that human traffickers had taken advantage of a family’s desire to seek a better life.
The bodies were found after U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped Steve Shand, 47, of Deltona, Fla., on Wednesday, while he was driving a 15-passenger van less than one mile south of the Canadian border in a rural area between the official ports of entry at Lancaster, Minn., and Pembina, N.D., federal prosecutors in Minnesota said.
He was charged with human smuggling. The federal public defender who represents Mr. Shand, according to court records, did not immediately respond to an email on Friday.
