Longshoreman who was denied security clearance appeals ruling

A Metro Vancouver longshoreman is appealing a decision by the federal government to deny him security clearance because of drug smuggling allegations against his brothers, who also work on the docks.

Arun Randhawa filed an application in the Federal Court of Canada last month seeking a judicial review of a refusal by the minister of transport to give him the special clearance necessary for some waterfront jobs.

In his court documents, Randhawa says he’s a casual longshore worker who registered for employment in March 2013 and applied for the Marine Transportation Security Clearance.

He was told in a November 2014 letter that he wouldn’t get the clearance because of “his alleged association on a daily basis with two individuals identified as executive members of an Indo-Canadian organized crime group, one of whom was caught with 235 pounds of cocaine in the United States and was sentenced to 60 months in prison.

The minister also alleged in the letter that “this group is known to police to traffic narcotics between the United States and Canada … and is involved with the Hells Angels, Japanese Mafia and Chinese criminals,” according to Randhawa’s application.

While the two associates are not named in the court documents, Randhawa’s eldest brother Alexie was arrested in California in 2008 with cocaine. He served four years of his five-year sentence before returning to Canada and his job as a Vancouver longshoreman in November 2012.

And Randhawa’s middle brother Alvin, also a longshoreman, has been charged in New York State with six counts of smuggling and distributing both cocaine and marijuana. He consented to committal for extradition in B.C. Supreme Court last November and is awaiting a decision by Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould on whether he will be sent to the U.S.

U.S. court documents say that decision is expected by May 6.

The New York indictment alleges Alvin Randhawa and three other Canadians were involved in smuggling marijuana across the border and into the state between 2007 and late 2010, as well as exporting cocaine from the U.S. into Canada from 2007 until May 11, 2011.

Both Arun and Alvin wrote reference letters for the L.A. judge in Alexie’s case when he was being sentenced.