‘You have to pay’: Trucker gets 11 years for smuggling $3.5M in cocaine into Sarnia

A Toronto-area truck driver has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for smuggling $3.5 million of cocaine into Canada via the Blue Water Bridge near Sarnia.

Article content

Harvinder Singh, then a 25-year-old trucker from Brampton, was arrested March 31, 2021, at the span linking Port Huron, Mich., and Point Edward after Canada Border Services Agency officers found two suitcases containing about 62 kilograms of cocaine while inspecting his tractor-trailer.

Article content

He pleaded not guilty to importing cocaine and possessing cocaine for trafficking as his four-day trial started in mid-May.

After a three-month adjournment, Superior Court Justice Kirk Munroe convicted Singh of both charges in August, but adjourned sentencing until late last week. As the two-and-a-half year case finally concluded on Thursday, Munroe sentenced him to 11 years in prison for importing and another nine years for trafficking, to run concurrently.

Article content

“This was wrong. You have to pay for it. It was very serious,” Munroe told Singh as he stood in the Sarnia courtroom’s prisoner’s box.

The judge added the crime was planned, not impulsive, and as a courier drug trafficker he intended to make money off the ills and misfortunes of others, unlike an addict trafficker just trying to get by.

“Mr. Singh certainly knew what he was doing and knew it was illegal,” he said.

Singh, who listened to Munroe’s reasons via a Punjabi interpreter, was given a chance to address the court before the judge passed sentence.

“My lawyer is going to talk on my behalf,” he said.

Defense lawyer Gurpreet Dhaliwal said his client, a permanent Canadian resident originally from India, likely will be deported after serving his sentence and asked the judge to recommend early deportation, a request federal prosecutor Rick Visca opposed. Munroe eventually declined, saying it would detract from the sentence’s unearthing effect on others attempting the same crime.

Article content

Singh was given credit for six months and 10 days in pre-sentence custody and on strict lease conditions, where he stayed by himself in a basement apartment for long stretches with no visitors. He was arrested on an unrelated incident about six weeks ago and has been in custody since.

Munroe previously cited several key reasons why he convicted Singh after a trial that mostly centered on circumstantial evidence. One was the incorrect seal Singh secured on his trailer after it was loaded with bags of carbon black, a powdery substance commonly used as a pigment and reinforcing agent in vehicle tires, at an XPO Logistics warehouse in the US Midwest.

The seal’s numbers were closed but didn’t quite match the manifest; the one that did was found in the cab near the driver’s seat. Singh had testified this was simply a mistake. But Visca previously noted that of the eight seals he had in a bag with him, he picked the two that were the most similar.

Article content

This was no accident, he had argued, and the judge said this could have allowed Singh to offload the cocaine in Canada after clearing the border before affixing the proper seal and heading to his Toronto destination.

Singh’s testimony on this issue, and in general, raised red flags for Munroe. He recalled Singh initially testing the seal swap was a mistake, then later saying it was easier to grab a couple of seals at a time while making multiple trips.

But during cross-examination, Singh testified he never picked up multiple loads while working for Brampton-based Greenway Carriers. Later, he changed his answer again, saying two seals came out when he put his hand in the bag.

There was also the issue of Singh’s dirty socks and footprints inside his trailer, which were the focus as a handful of border officers testified during the early stages of the trial. They got dirty as Singh did a pre-trip inspection of his load without wearing shoes, yet Singh testified he never saw the cocaine-filled suitcases officers found near the nose of the trailer and had no idea they were there.

Article content

There was no direct evidence linking Singh to the suitcases, but Munroe found the only reasonable inference was he had knowledge of the drugs as they crossed into Canada.

Singh was the first of 12 truckers arrested at the Blue Water Bridge since 2021 and accused of smuggling millions of dollars in illegal drugs into Canada. Most of the other cases are still before the courts.

[email protected]

@ObserverTerry

BLUE WATER BRIDGE DRUG BUSTS SINCE 2021

• Aug. 3: Shaminder Singh, 26, from Caledon, charged with importing methamphetamine.
• July 8: Two men from Toronto and Ottawa charged with importing $6 million in cocaine and heroin.
• April 11: 45.2 kilograms of suspected cocaine worth more than $2 million is seized. A Mississauga trucker, 30, is charged. The suspect was recently granted lease.
• Dec. 14, 2022: 84 one-kilogram bricks of suspected cocaine worth $4 million are seized. A Caledon truck is charged.
• Dec. 11, 2022: 89 bricks of suspected cocaine worth as much as $6 million are seized. Two Brampton truckers are charged.
• Oct. 17, 2022: 224 kg of suspected cocaine worth about $9.4 million is seized. A Brampton trucker, 68, is charged.
• June 21, 2022: Suitcases holding 100 bricks of suspected cocaine are discovered. A Toronto trucker, 62, is charged.
• April 8, 2022: About 60 kg of suspected cocaine is found, thugh new charges linked to heroin were laid later. A Brampton trucker, 25, is charged.
• Jan.13, 2022: About 265 kg of suspected heroin, pink cocaine and meth are seized and a Quebec City trucker, 23, is charged.
• March 31, 2021: Singh is arrested after CBSA officers find two suitcases filled with cocaine in the nose of his trailer.

Article content