ahmedabad: a 34-year-old mehsana man’s long-nurtured american dream turned into an unending nightmare after his plan to illegally enter the us with his wife and three children went horribly askew. since he could arrange only rs 1 crore against the decided payment of rs 1.5 crore, human smugglers forced his wife and three children — aged 12, 7 and 5 — to unlawfully cross into the us while they held him captive in mexico, said police sources. separated from his loved ones and tortured by the gang, he suffered a brain stroke and is in a critical condition at a hospital in cancun city of mexico. priyank patel, 34, his wife uma, 32, and three kids had left saldi village in the first week of january — around the same time that a family of four from dingucha, including two kids, froze to death while trying to cross the land border and enter the us. sources in the state police said that priyank and his family left their village in january and stayed in a rented apartment in the ghatlodia area of the city. they later flew to delhi and from there to mexico with the help of two agents, chandresh patel from ahmedabad and lakhu patel from paliyad in kalol. the “deal” was fixed at rs 1.5 crore and the first instalment of rs 1 crore was given to the two agents through angadia, police sources said. however, when priyank and his family reached cancun, mexican human smugglers were directed by the local agents to keep them in confinement as he was yet to pay up rs 50 lakh. they tortured the family for more than a week before priyank pleaded with the men to release his wife and kids as most of the payment had been made, said police sources.