Pubdate: Fri, 07 Dec 2012 Source: Windsor Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2012 The Windsor Star Contact: http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501 Author: Craig Pearson ARE TRUCKERS UNSUSPECTING DRUG MULES? Local Trials Connected to Major Busts As Kuldeep Singh Dharni rolled his tractor-trailer up to the Ambassador Bridge customs booth, an agent's drug senses started tingling. It was 8:30 p.m., Aug. 10, 2009, and Canada Border Services Agency officers had a "look out," or tip, to focus on longhaul trucks they did not recognize. So the agent sent the cleancut Brampton trucker and his load of aluminum coils to secondary inspection - where the then 36-year-old's life unravelled in a string of legal troubles, expenses and $10 million in cocaine. He said he had no idea about the coke. A Windsor judge believed him. "I accept you, Mr. Dharni, as a person of good character," Ontario court Justice Thomas Carey said in his decision last month. Dharni was found not guilty of importing 100 kilograms of cocaine. His case represents a trend that a Windsor defence lawyer predicts will grow: narcotics spirited across the Canadian- American border inside 18-wheelers filled with legitimate product. On Tuesday Goran Maslic, 37, and Christopher Boronka, 29, were found not guilty of importing 45 kilos of cocaine in peppers Sept. 14, 2009. Next week, a decision is pending in the case of Karamjit Singh Grewal, 48, who was found bringing 82 kilos of coke in a cargo of lettuce April 12, 2009. Two more significant cocaine-in-truck trials start in Windsor next year. The recent trials are connected to a raft of major busts in 2009, when Canadian customs officers found almost $62 million in 43 seizures in Windsor. In 2010, CBSA offices found $1.1 million, in 2011 $6. 7 million, and through September of this year, $4.7 million - - all at the Windsor border alone. "The borders have tightened up significantly since 9-11," said lawyer Patrick Ducharme, who successfully defended Dharni, among others. "Real drug importers are not going to take the chance anymore. They're not willing to face life imprisonment. They're going to make someone else take the risk. "That's why I think it's more likely than not that almost every driver doesn't know." Defence lawyers says it's relatively easy for bad guys to hide drugs in an unsuspecting mule's truck, and thereby avoid any risk of jail. Prosecutors, however, says it's easy for truckers to claim they did not know about the drugs they transported across North America's busiest border. "It's my belief that the ruthless importers of drugs are smart in selecting drivers who are unsophisticated, more naive, less likely to suspect anything is wrong, less likely to be inquiring and suspicious of anybody they work with," said Ducharme, who successfully defended two similarly accused besides Dharni. Ducharme also represents Grewal, whose decision comes Monday. Plus, Ducharme has two major importing trials lined up next year. The veteran lawyer thinks part of the problem surrounds investigators who simply charge drivers without much other leg work. "The investigators grab the truck driver and say, 'You're charged,' and that's pretty well the end of the investigation," he said. Border officials, however, say stopping drugs is paramount. "CBSA is committed to the safety and protection of all Canadians," said Diana Scott, CBSA spokeswoman. "We continue to be vigilant in our enforcement efforts at the border. Stopping the smuggling of illegal drugs at our borders plays a big part in tackling crime and making our communities safer." Scott said recent significant seizures illustrate the "excellent work and ongoing attention" CBSA officers provide. She said the CBSA shares information with partners, nationally and internationally, and keeps up with increasingly sophisticated concealment trends. While Ducharme thinks unwitting drivers often ferry drugs across the border, the federal prosecutor who handles most major importing cases in Windsor argues the opposite, based on expert testimony. "They have said there is simply no such thing as a blind mule," Richard Pollock, who has prosecuted more than 50 drug-importation cases in the last 20 years, said. "It doesn't work that way." In the last two years, Pollock has secured a number of lengthy sentences: Lackham Singh Chahal and Sandeep Singh Hans - 16 years for 147 kilos of cocaine; Jaswinder Singh Aujla and Gurminder Singh Riar - - 16 and 14 years respectively, for 37 kilos; Balwinder Sangha - 11 years for 22.5 kilos; Harpreet Singh - 10 years for 50 kilos. "Cocaine is death, "Ontario court Justice Micheline Rawlins said in sentencing Harpreet Singh. "It leads to only one thing: the graveyard." But Pollock acknowledges that a number of accused have walked. Prosecutions without physical evidence - such as footprints or fingerprints on or around the dope - prove tricky. "How do you prosecute a driver you can't prove ever looked in the back of a truck?" Pollock asked. "You do it through circumstantial evidence. All of our cases now are about recreating the trip that the accused was on." Where did a driver stop? For how long? Who did he talk to? Pollock agrees with Ducharme on one thing: drug importation will continue. "The trend reflects the change in the distribution of cocaine," said Pollock, noting that drug kingpins used to favour the Maritimes to enter the country. "With the change in the Mexican cartels running the trade routes, cocaine now comes into Canada via land crossings. British Columbia and Ontario tend to be the big ones. There's no question that ecstasy and marijuana are shipped to the United States. The preferred mode of transportation is by truck or vehicle. And cocaine and guns, unfortunately, come into Canada in the same fashion." The illicit phenomenon makes all truckers look bad - perhaps especially Indo-Canadian drivers, whose names pop up disproportionately among the accused. "It is a very alarming trend," said Manan Gupta, editor/publisher of Road Today, a monthly publication focused on the South Asian trucking community in Canada. "But there are only a very limited handful of people bringing a bad name not only to IndoCanadians but to the trucking industry at large." Gupta said while some truckers are unwitting dupes, others are swayed simply by greed. He said Canadian truckers typically earn just $5,000 to $6,000 a month, driving 10 to 11 hours, five days a week. Gupta says drug importers offer perhaps $10,000 to smuggle a load of coke - enticing to someone struggling for work. Gupta says smuggling costs more than just the freedom of those found guilty. According to Statistics Canada, in 2011 Canada and the United States traded $552 billion worth of goods, almost $114 billion of that passing through Windsor-Detroit. "This affects the trucking industry badly," Gupta said. "First of all, Ontario is the economic centre for trade between Canada and the United States. There is already great traffic delays at the border. So when the trucking industry gets involved in nefarious things, border security officers have to look through so many trucks, and it delays the whole movement of goods. "The trucking industry takes a big hit for this." What is the answer to such a high stakes game? Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance summed up the battle in her judgment this week: "I accept that it would have been challenging for third-party traffickers to orchestrate the loading and drop off of cocaine without the assistance of the drivers. However, the sophistication and ingenuity of persons in the drug trade should not be underestimated." Meanwhile, the white powdered fallout continues. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom