Indian-origin truck driver Jasbir Singh who pleaded guilty to transporting cocaine from the US to Canada in 2023, has been sent to jail for 10 years. Bricks of cocaine were found inside his truck, lying open in plain sight and not even concealed. On a secondary inspection of his truck at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor-Detroit, officers found 40 bricks, each weighing one kilogram. Another 20 bricks of cocaine were hidden in a box. Singh told the court that he was a courier and not a mastermind of the operation. But agreeing to deliver the multimillion dollar shipment of cocaine from US to Canada was a decision that he will regret for the rest of his life as he is now going to miss important years of his daughter’s life. Superior Court Justice Paul Howard described the total 61-kg seizure as a “significant amount” of an addictive drug “that does damage to our communities.” Because there’s no domestic source for the illicit narcotic, “absent importation, there’d be no cocaine in Canada,” the judge told the trucker.The estimated 2023 value of the seized drug shipment was $3.4 million, with a translated street-level sale value of about $5.4 million. His friends and family submitted character letters to the court describing Singh as a family-oriented, hardworking individual known for helping newcomers in Canada. The defence lawyer contended that it was a one-off incident for Singh and that he was a mere courier. In his letter to the judge, Singh said there was “no excuse” for what he did and that he understood “I must face the consequences of my action.” But he asked that his punishment not be “too crushing” so that he could return sooner to once again support his family and help raise his daughter.
