Two truck drivers, suspected to be of Indian descent, were apprehended in Canada on allegations of smuggling illegal drugs worth millions of dollars across the US-Canada border at Michigan-Sarnia. Karan Owaan, 24, hailing from Kingston, and Gagandeep Singh Gharil, 32, from Brampton, were taken into custody on October 18 and charged with importing methamphetamine into Canada as well as possessing the same substance with the intent to distribute. However, one of them has already been released on bail, according to reports, which noted that the rationale behind Owaan’s bail approval is currently protected by a temporary publication ban. His case is scheduled to return to court in early December.
Owaan was granted bail set at $85,000, required to wear a GPS tracking device, and his sureties were obligated to pay a $30,000 deposit. While out on bail, he will reside with two sureties in Brampton under house arrest and is prohibited from communicating with his co-accused.
“He must surrender all passports and travel documents to the RCMP and is not permitted to apply for new ones. Additionally, he cannot be within 100 meters of an airport or an international border, nor use any electronic devices to access the internet unless supervised by his sureties,” the report detailed, outlining the conditions of his bail.
Gharil remains in custody, with a bail hearing scheduled for November 17.
In a separate case, two Indian-origin truck drivers were sentenced to 10 years in prison for cocaine smuggling. In October, Vikram Dutta, 44, and Gurinder Singh, 61, both from Brampton, received sentences for smuggling cocaine valued at $11 million into Canada three years prior. They were charged with importing cocaine and possessing it for trafficking after border officers discovered 115 kilograms of the drug in a truck at the bridge connecting Michigan and the Sarnia area on December 11, 2022. The Sarnia border, linking Michigan’s Port Huron and Ontario’s Sarnia, has emerged as a significant route for drug trafficking.
