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Punjab-origin truck driver held in bid to smuggle cocaine into Canada
Canadian law enforcement has arrested and charged a 35-year-old Indo-Canadian for attempting to smuggle 233kg cocaine into the country
Caption: The cocaine seized at the Queenston Bridge port of entry. Photo: CBSA
Toronto : Canadian law enforcement has arrested and charged a 35-year-old Indo-Canadian for attempting to smuggle 233kg cocaine into the country.
The alleged smuggler was identified by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as Sukhwinder Dhanju, a resident of Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
In a release on Wednesday, the agencies said that Dhanju, a commercial truck driver, was referred for a secondary inspection of his vehicle when he arrived at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge port of entry in Niagara-on-the Lake, Ontario. Border services officers discovered 202 brick-shaped objects which tested positive for cocaine with a total weight of 233kg.
He was subsequently arrested by the CBSA and transferred to the custody of the RCMP Border Integrity Unit, along with the suspected narcotics.
After an investigation on December 19, Dhanju was charged with importation of cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking. He has a court hearing scheduled for February 2.
“The diligence of our border services officers led to this significant seizure of cocaine. Our work with the RCMP is key to dismantling smuggling efforts and keeping harmful drugs out of our communities,” Jeff Walters, CBSA’s District Director, Niagara District Operations, said.
This was followed by the arrest on another Indo-Canadian trucker on December 4 at the Blue Water Bridge port of entry in Point Edward, Ontario. The vehicle operated by Manpreet Singh, 27, also a resident of Brampton, was found to be carrying boxes containing 52kg of suspected cocaine.
Also in December, Canadian law enforcement sought an Interpol Red Notice for an Indo-Canadian who was sentenced for drug trafficking and is believed to have fled to India.
The Federal Serious & Organized Crime (FSOC) unit of the British Columbia detachment of the RCMP said that 60-year-old Raj Kumar Mehmi, from the town of Surrey in British Columbia (BC), was sentenced in absentia to serve a total of 15 years in prison for smuggling 80kg of cocaine into the province.
He was attempting to bring in the contraband from the United States. On November 6, 2017, CBSA officers found 80 sealed bricks of cocaine, worth an estimated $3.2 million Canadian dollars secreted in the truck he owned and was driving.
He was then arrested by the FSOC’s Waterfront Joint Force Operation and charged for importation of a controlled substance and for possession for the purpose of trafficking. On September 6, 2022, a BC Supreme Court judge found him guilty and a sentencing hearing was fixed for January this year.
However, just over a month later, Mehmi fled to India, boarding a flight from Vancouver to New Delhi.
On November 16 last year, a judge of the Surrey Provincial Court of BC sentenced him, in his absence, to a cumulative 15 years in prison.
A Canada-wide arrest warrant was issued for the fugitive, while the Interpol notice was “being sought as a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest Mehmi, pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action”, a CBSA release issued last month noted.
