Drug courier needed cash for refugee claim: defence

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This article was published 13/12/2023 (695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A B.C. truck driver is facing a possible 13-year prison sentence and ultimate deportation after he was ensnared in a police investigation that targeted a Winnipeg drug dealer.

Twenty-six-year-old Manvir Singh, of Surrey, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of trafficking fentanyl.

Court heard members of the Winnipeg Police Service guns and gangs unit had a criminal target, Curtis Ndatirwa, under surveillance on Nov. 29, 2021, when they followed him to Deacon’s Corner, east of the city, and saw him meet with a semi-truck driver.

The truck driver gave Ndatirwa two bags, which he stashed in the rear of his car.

Police followed Ndatirwa back into the city and pulled him over. Officers seized the bags and found 15 kilograms of methamphetamine, two kilograms of fentanyl, and one kilogram of cocaine with a total estimated street value of $3 million.

Winnipeg police alerted the Brandon Police Service, which arrested Singh later that afternoon as he passed the city on the Trans-Canada Highway.

Brandon police found an additional 400 grams of fentanyl in the cab of Singh’s truck and nearly $30,000 in cash.

Crown attorney Julian Kim described Singh as a trusted high-level courier and recommended King’s Bench Justice Vic Toews sentence him to 13 years in prison.

“The Crown is accepting.. he is not the directing mind, but in the same breath, I want to emphasize the important role couriers have in these wider organizations,” Kim said.

Couriers are used by drug bosses “to evade arrest… and provide a level of protective insulation,” she said. “They are such an essential layer in organized criminality.”

Deaths from fentanyl outpace the annual homicide rate in Canada, Kim said, referencing statistics cited in a recent provincial court decision.

“With drug trafficking, the victim is abstract in that you don’t see them in the courtroom,” Kim said. “Even though this is not looked at as a violent crime, it has an impact worse than the most violent crime in Canada, and that needs to be reflected in sentencing.”

Defence lawyer Shimon Segal urged Toews to sentence Singh to no more than nine years in prison, arguing Singh didn’t know specifically what drugs he had in his possession.

“There is a difference between (Singh and) a drug dealer who stands over his flock and says: ‘This is the amount of drugs I am going to deliver today,’” Segal said. “Manvir Singh is a guy who takes packages… When Manvir Singh gets into his truck and takes packages, he has to know there was something nefarious in them and he did.”

Singh fled to Canada from his native India after he was attacked in retribution because his father’s testimony sent several men to prison, one of whom died, Segal said.

Singh came to Canada on a student visa and in 2020 filed for refugee status, Segal said.

When trauma from the attack left him unable to continue his studies, he borrowed money from his father to train as a truck driver and got a job.

But Singh needed more money to pursue his refugee claim, Segal said.

“There is no evidence he was making a handsome income as a truck driver,” he said. When Singh heard word on the street that “if he wants to make extra money, there is an opportunity,” he took it.

“He is one of the most vulnerable people, someone who fears being sent back to their country,” Segal said. “He’s able to be taken advantage of by the people he was taken advantage of.”

Given an opportunity to address court, Singh apologized for his “bad decisions.”

“I lied to my family and I hurt the communities that took me in as their own,” he said. “Going forward, I will never make these same decisions again.”

Ndatirwa remains before the court.

Toews will sentence Singh at a later date.

Dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca