Toronto: An Indian-origin man in Canada has been found guilty of importing cocaine.
The Supreme Court of the Canadian province of British Columbia has ruled Navdeep Singh Dhillon guilty of importing 30 kg of cocaine into Canada in his tractor-trailer while returning from a trip to California in the US in 2009, local media reported.
Dhillon was stopped at a primary inspection booth on the Pacific Highway April 17, 2009, and questioned about the goods he was carrying in his tractor-trailer.
A Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officer referred Dhillon for a secondary inspection.
Two officers aided by a detector dog then checked the tractor-trailer again and found 30 brick-like packages behind two access panels in the trailer’s refrigeration compartment.
The packages each weighed about one kg and contained cocaine and the total value of the drugs was approximately $1.5 million.
The defence lawyers argued that Dhillon was used as a "blind courier" but judge Murray Blok refused to buy it.
"I conclude that the use of a blind courier in this case would have been very unlikely given the high value of the drugs in question, the risks associated with using a blind courier and the considerable problems the traffickers would face in both secreting and retrieving the drugs, given Mr. Dhillon’s virtually continuous association with his truck and trailer," The Vancouver Province quoted Blok as writing in his decision.
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