15 years in jail for role in cross border smuggling

The owner of a Brampton trucking company, who was part of a conspiracy to smuggle an estimated $120 million in cocaine across Niagara border crossings, has been sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

Parminda Sidhu, 43, was convicted last week in a Buffalo, N.Y., court of conspiracy to export five kilograms or more of cocaine. Between 2009 and May 2011, according to U.S. attorney Timothy Lynch, Sidhu conspired with five other men to smuggle cocaine into Canada via several Buffaloarea international bridges. In September 2010, court heard, 97 kilograms of cocaine that originated in California was hidden in false compartments of a tractor trailer owned by Sidhu’s trucking company Prime 9. Border agents seized the narcotics at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge. In May 2011, Sidhu directed the driver to once again travel to California where another 26 kilograms of cocaine was hidden in a second trailer. The rig was driven to a N.Y. truck stop where it was picked up by second driver. Police arrested the driver as he left the truck stop.

Police seized drug ledgers from Sidhu’s Brampton residence which detailed nine additional smuggling trips in 2009 and 2010. The trips involved approximately 1,600 kilograms of cocaine being smuggled into Canada. In addition, approximately 690,000 ecstasy pills were seized during the course of the investigation. The pills had an estimated street value of $12 million. Sidhu was the last of six men convicted in the drug smuggling conspiracy to be sentenced. He faced a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.