Both Jasveer Singh and Gurpreet Singh, the two Indian-origin men, arrested in the US while transporting 309 pounds of cocaine hidden in their tractor-trailer pretended that they were not aware of what they were carrying. Both of them had a California commercial driver’s license. Jasveer Singh was driving the semi while Gurpreet was his passenger. According to reports, Jasveer told the police who stopped him that he was employed as a commercial truck driver by Sidhu Trucking Inc. He said he had hitched a ride in a different company truck from California to Joplin, Missouri, to pick up the tractor-trailer that he was driving when he was caught. Jasveer said he was instructed by the trucking company to drive the “empty” tractor-trailer to an Indian restaurant located at Exit 151 near Richmond. The instruction was that he would go to the restaurant, eat and wait for a load of freight. Jasveer said the truck did not have an Electronic Logging Device system and that he had not completed a paper logbook.Gurpreet who was on the passenger seat told police he had hitched a ride from California to Joplin in a different truck and was now with Jasveer. He was also intructed to go to the same indian restaurant. Gurpreet said he was not a company employee and did not complete a logbook.
‘Cardboard boxes covered by a blanket’
As the police officer was speaking to both of them, he saw numerous cardboard boxes covered by a blanket in the sleeper berth of the truck. The trooper said there was one black plastic bag containing a partially exposed kilogram-sized package wrapped in brown duct tape and cellophane, which confirmed their suspicion.When the police offered their search warrant, Jasveer agreed but then declined after calling the truck company.
