Another Indo-Canadian Man Charged In The Same Case Pleads Guilty!

Gursharan Singh, of Brampton, Ontario, pleaded guilty last week in federal court in Buffalo to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $10 million fine at sentencing in November.

BUFFALO — A 33-year-old Indo-Canadian man has pleaded guilty in connection with a drug smuggling operation that transported large amounts of cocaine and marijuana across the U.S.-Canadian border while Vancouver Longshoreman Alvin Randhawa charged in the same case has agreed to be deported to the US to face drug charges.

Gursharan Singh, of Brampton, Ontario, pleaded guilty last week in federal court in Buffalo to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $10 million fine at sentencing in November.

Prosecutors say that between 2007 and May 2011 Singh conspired with others to smuggle cocaine into Canada via several international bridges. Investigators believe the group trafficked approximately 2.2 tons of the drug.

Singh was indicted with Randhawa and Harinder Dhaliwal, who are still facing charges. Three others charged in the conspiracy have been convicted.

Randhawa’s brother Alexie was also arrested in California for possession of 107 kilograms of cocaine in 2008. At the time, Alvin wrote a glowing reference letter to the U.S. judge, wrote the Vancouver Sun.

“My brother and I have been very close since we were very young,” Alvin Randhawa said of his older brother and fellow longshoreman. “He has always been there for me and to see him make such a life-altering mistake is absolutely devastating for me.”

Randhawa appeared in B.C. Supreme Court Tuesday with US Department of Justice lawyer John Gibb-Carsley, telling Justice Brenda Brown that Randhawa had “consented to committal.”

Randhawa was indicted by a New York grand jury and then arrested along with B.C. co-accused Patrick Bacon on May 7, 2014.

The U.S. indictment alleges Randhawa, Bacon and two Ontario co-accused were involved in smuggling marijuana across the border and into New York between 2007 and late 2010, as well as exporting cocaine from the U.S. into Canada from 2007 until May 11, 2011.

Throughout that period, Randhawa continued to work on the Vancouver waterfront as a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 500.

After he was released on bail in May 2014, he returned to his longtime ILWU job.

His brother Alexie Randhawa, now 37, served four years in a U.S. jail before returning to Canada and his job as a Vancouver longshoreman in November 2012, reported the Vancouver Sun.