A Florida man has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges in a case linked to the discovery last year of a family of four migrants from India found frozen to death just steps from the Canada-US border.

Steve Shand, 48, waived the reading of indictment before entering the plea via videoconference as part of the arraignment in Duluth, Minnesota. Shand is accused of illegally bringing migrants from India into the US on a frigid January night in 2022.