Brampton Man Sentenced to Several Years in U.S. Prison for $120-Million Drug Trafficking Scheme
Published March 30, 2018 at 8:24 pm
Lots of money and lots of people were involved in a drug trafficking scheme across the Canada-U.S.border worth millions of dollars back in April 2017.
Lots of money and lots of people were involved in a drug trafficking scheme across the Canada-U.S.border worth millions of dollars back in April 2017. Now, a Brampton man has been sentenced to several years in a U.S. federal prison in connection with the crime.
We reported in April that 47-year-old Brampton man Harinder Dhaliwal had pleaded guilty to conspiring to export cocaine from the U.S. into Canada. We reported in August that Dhaliwal had been sentenced to 20 years in U.S. prison.
Now, another Brampton man, Parminder Sidhu, 43, has been sentenced to 15 years in U.S. prison for being part of an international conspiracy that trafficked over 3,000 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $120,000,000, most of it through the Western District of New York.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office, the man conspired with Michael Bagri, Ravinder Arora, Alvin Randhawa, Gursharan Singh, and Harinder Dhaliwal to export cocaine from the U.S. to Canada. between 2009 and 2011.
“In September 2010, Sidhu hired defendant Bagri to travel to California to pick up cocaine,” said the Attorney’s Office in a recent release.
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“Defendant Bagri then hid 97 kilograms of cocaine in a false compartment in the floor of a tractor trailer. The tractor trailer was then driven to Cheektowaga, NY where it was turned over to defendant Ravinder Arora. Defendant Arora then proceeded to Canada. At the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, Special Agents with the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol seized the 97 kilograms of cocaine from the false compartment during a secondary inspection.”
According to the release, on May 1, 2011, Sidhu sent Bagri to California again.
“After hiding another 26 kilograms of cocaine in another tractor trailer, the rig was driven to a truck stop in Pembroke, N.Y. The tractor trailer was then picked up by a driver hired by Parminder Sidhu. As the driver exited the truck stop, Bagri followed behind in another vehicle. Agents later stopped the tractor trailer and Sidhu’s vehicle and seized the 26 kilograms of cocaine.”
Officers executed a search warrant at Sidhu’s Brampton residence, where they reportedly discovered drug ledgers that detailed nine more smuggling trips in 2009 and 2010.
According to the Attorney’s office, the trips involved approximately 1,617 kilograms of cocaine being transported from the United States into Canada.
This was the largest seizure of cocaine in the Western District of New York’s history, said the release.
All six defendants have now been convicted and sentenced.
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