Drug-smuggling case delayed again
While the defence lawyer in a 2017 drug-smuggling case continues to request adjournments, the Crown is beginning to grow impatient with the repeated delays and is itching to proceed.
The case goes back to Dec. 2 when a man and woman hauling a commercial load of produce from California to Alberta were stopped at the Coutts border.
The matter was in Lethbridge provincial court Friday, where an agent for Calgary lawyer Patrick Fagan asked for a one-week adjournment. The federal Crown noted, however, that he is ready to proceed with the case while the accused have not yet even elected how they want to be tried, and the lawyer hasn’t completed required paperwork. The Crown also reminded the court that the lawyer is acting for both accused, which my be a conflict of interest.
Following their first court appearance Dec. 8, California couple, Gurminder Singh Toor, 31, and his wife Kirandeep Kaur Toor, 26, were released from custody on each posting $10,000 cash bail. They were ordered not to leave Alberta, to provide authorities with travel documents, report weekly and in person to the RCMP, live at a specific address in Edmonton, and not possess any weapons or explosives.
In March Calgary lawyers Kim Ross and Michael Oykhman were removed from the record, and replaced by Fagan who, court was told, would need time to review the case. But after nearly a dozen court hearings on the matter since charges were laid, the Crown wants to proceed.
Both accused are charged with two counts of importing drugs and two counts of drug possession for purpose of trafficking.
Authorities reported that after a man and woman arrived at the Coutts border, officers searched the cab of the truck and found 84 bricks of suspected cocaine weighing 99.5 kilograms, considered the largest cocaine seizure recorded by Canada Border Services Agency officers in Alberta's history.
The RCMP reported the drugs are worth between $6.5 million and $8 million on the street depending on how they're broken down for sale. A media spokesperson for the CBSA said the drugs would provide on the street between 100,000 and 200,000 hits.
The driver and passenger of the commercial vehicle were arrested and turned over to the RCMP. Police reported the shipment was destined for the Calgary area, although the drugs likely would have been shipped to other provinces once they were processed.
An unrelated case involving a drug bust at the Coutts border barely two weeks later was also adjourned until next Friday.
Kuldeep Singh, 39, is charged under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act with two counts of importing drugs and two counts of drug possession for the purpose of trafficking. During a hearing in April he elected to be tried by a Court of Queen’s Bench judge, and the matter was adjourned to May then again to Friday’s hearing to schedule a preliminary hearing.
Follow @DelonHerald on Twitter