Trucker acquitted in drug trafficking case

Judge determines there wasn’t enough proof driver knew cocaine was on board

EDMONTON A truck driver at the centre of a $5-million cocaine seizure at Alberta’s Coutts border crossing in 2016 has been acquitted of drug trafficking charges because there was reasonable doubt as to whether he knew about the drugs, a court has found.

Parmjeet Singh Sandhu of Ontario and Jasmail Singh Sander of British Columbia were both charged with drug trafficking after border officers discovered 83 one-kilogram packages of cocaine stashed in various locations around a semi-truck including behind a microwave, in a duffel bag, under a mattress and inside the truck’s two jockey boxes.

Another 17 one-kilogram packages missed by border officers and a drug dog in the initial search were discovered by the truck’s owner when he had the vehicle serviced after it was returned from impound.

In a written statement released Friday, Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice William Tilleman said that even though Sandhu’s evidence was “imperfect,” the Crown’s case suggesting Sandhu knew of the drugs was based “entirely on circumstantial evidence of possession.”

The Crown conceded the drugs were not stored in view and there was “no direct evidence of where the drugs came from, who put them there, how, in what state or country, or when.” There was no DNA or fingerprints on the packages.

Sandhu testified through an interpreter at trial that he was not aware there were drugs in the truck and that he and Sander never discussed drugs.

The 32-year-old junior relief driver said he never saw or touched any cocaine in the tractor and he never saw the packages being placed at any point during the October trip to the United States.

The pair had come to the attention of border security after Sander, who was the driver, was flagged in their system “for suspected involvement in drug trafficking.”

Charges against Sander were stayed after he died in June.

Sandhu, 22 years younger than his co-accused, was new to Canada, spoke little to no English and was new to the long-haul truck driving job. He had been employed for just five months with the trucking company and the pair had known each other for about one month

(There was) no direct evidence of where the drugs came from, who put them there, how, in what state or country, or when.

before they were assigned to drive together to transport fish from Vancouver to California.

Tilleman wrote that Sandhu’s evidence, “when considered in the context of all of the evidence in this trial, is sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt about whether he knew or was wilfully blind to the presence of controlled substances in the tractor.”

Sandhu was acquitted of the possession for the purposes of trafficking charge and of importing drugs into Canada.