Pubdate: Thu, 25 Aug 2011
Source: Langley Advance (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.langleyadvance.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248
Author: Kim Bolan, Postmedia Network Inc.

EX-MOUNTIE CHARGED IN COCAINE SMUGGLING CASE

An ex-Mountie on trial for misusing a police database to get
information about the Bacon brothers has now been charged in the U.S.
with conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into Canada through Aldergrove, and
recruiting a border guard to help him do it.

Abbotsford resident Rapinder (Rob) Sidhu, and co-accused Anthony
Jurcev, were indicted by a grand jury in Seattle this week, according
to court documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

Sidhu is in the middle of a trial in Surrey Provincial Court for
allegedly impersonating a police officer on July 31, 2007 to get the
address of the Bacons from the RCMP's Operational Communications Centre.

He is back in court in that case in September. The U.S. indictment
alleges that beginning at least by the middle of 2007 until at least
May 2008, Sidhu and Jurcev worked with convicted smugglers Rob Shannon
and Devron Quast of Abbotsford "to operate a cocaine transportation
organization based in British Columbia."

"On a regular basis during this time period, the B.C. cocaine
organization exported, and attempted to export, loads of cocaine from
the United States to Canada," the indictment says. "The cocaine was
concealed in vans and recreational vehicles."

The indictment also says that Sidhu, who left the RCMP in 2003 in the
middle of an internal investigation, "recruited an employee of the
Canada Border Services Agency, who agreed to allow and did allow
vehicles containing cocaine to pass through his lane at the Lynden/
Aldergrove Port of Entry."

That border guard, Jaspal Grewal, pleaded guilty in a Seattle
courtroom in July to his role in the criminal gang.

He is to be sentenced in October.

Both Shannon and Quast earlier pleaded guilty to their roles in the
smuggling organization, which U.S. authorities allege was run for the
benefit of the Hells Angels in B.C. and involved more than $19 million
worth of marijuana and cocaine going back and forth across the border
over five years.

So far, 24 B.C. men have pleaded guilty to their roles in the massive
operation.

A number of the accused hail from Abbotsford.

Two other Abbotsford high profile suspects recently nabbed in the bust
of the smuggling ring include Edward "Skeeter" Russell and Jody York,
longtime former associates of Anton Hooites-Meursing, who pleaded
guilty to murder earlier this year and who is expected to be a key
witness in the Surrey Six case.

Neither Sidhu nor Jurcev could be reached for comment
Friday.

Jurcev had been named on an earlier indictment filed by the U.S.
Attorney.

The indictment alleges Sidhu and Jurcev were behind two intercepted
shipments of cocaine, totalling 478 kilograms.

One load was found inside a recreational vehicle that was stopped by
police in Orange County, Calif. on July 24, 2007.

The other was located inside luggage in a minivan intercepted in
Everett, Wash. on May 16, 2008.

And the indictment claims there were many more cocaine shipments that
police did not intercept.

The U.S. also wants the two men to surrender any assets they received
from their alleged cocaine smuggling.

Sidhu pleaded guilty in July 2003 to causing "fear of personal injury"
in another domestic case.

He also pleaded guilty in 2005 to two counts of fraud over $5,000 and
received a 12-month conditional sentence concurrent on both counts.
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.