Trucker emotional amid not guilty verdict in $47M drug bust at Sarnia border

A truck driver wiped tears from his eyes after a judge in Sarnia found him not guilty Friday of all six charges he was facing linked to the seizure of $47 million in illegal drugs at the Blue Water Bridge two years ago.

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Border officers on the Canadian side of the twin-span bridge connecting Michigan and the Sarnia area found 265 kilograms of narcotics stashed among large garbage bags and spare tires in a commercial vehicle during a probe on Jan. 13, 2022, officials said at the time. The drugs, including suspected versions of heroin, pink cocaine, and meth, were worth more than $47 million, officials said.

Arshdeep Singh, a 24-year-old truck driver with ties to Brampton and Quebec City, was arrested and charged with three counts of drug importation and three counts of possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking. Following a trial held earlier this year at the Sarnia courthouse, Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia returned with her decision Friday.

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“The accused will be found not guilty of each of the charges,” she said at the conclusion of her lengthy judgment.

Singh, who listened to the verdict through a Punjabi interpreter, wiped his eyes after hearing the outcome. Both Singh and his lawyer declined to comment in the courthouse lobby. Singh was granted $335,000 lease in January 2023 after spending almost a year in jail as his first attempt to obtain bail was denied in May 2022.

Surinder Singh Aujla, a lawyer with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, said they will review the decision for any potential errors at law.

The Crown’s case relied on circumstantial evidence pointing to Singh having possession and control of the drugs in his garbage-hauling truck. Carroccia said although some of the evidence was suspicious, she was concerned with the absence of other evidence that left her with a reasonable doubt.

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The trial heard Singh drove a tractor trailer loaded with municipal waste from Oakville to the Pine Tree Acres landfill in Lenox, Mich., early that Thursday morning two years ago. He stopped at Love’s Travel Stop in St. Clair, Mich., before returning to the Blue Water Bridge around 9 am

Singh was sent for an inspection and a dog trained to find illegal drugs officers helped uncover eight garbage bags and two tires with narcotics inside. They were in plastic bags that were vacuum sealed and duct taped and placed inside duffel bags that were zip-tied shut.

After Singh’s arrest, investigators found video footage at the Love’s Travel Stop which shows him parking next to another truck for about 20 minutes. At one point the second truck leaves, returns and parks at a different angle. Both trucks leave within minutes of each other.

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This was a key part of the Crown’s argument that Singh was a courier getting paid to bring drugs across the border. But the judge said although it was suspicious, it wasn’t the only inference she could draw. She also noted there was no exchange on the video.

Also there was no additional evidence about the other truck, such as who was driving it or where it went, and the garbage bags with the drugs didn’t have fingerprints and couldn’t be sent for DNA testing.

This was the second verdict in a trucker drug-importing trial this week in Sarnia. On Monday, a different judge found a Toronto trucker guilty of importing $3.6 million worth of cocaine across the bridge in June 2022. He will be sentenced later this fall.

Two other Sarnia importing cases also concluded recently with a Brampton trucker getting sentenced to 11 years in prison and a non-trucker from Brantford being imprisoned for 11 years.

These were among at least 16 major drug busts – all but one involved trucks – on the Sarnia-area side of the bridge since 2019.

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