Jury finds couple guilty in drug smuggling trial
By Delon Shurtz on April 28, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com Kirandeep Taur Toor sobbed and braced herself against a table, minutes after a jury found her guilty of trying to smuggle drugs into Alberta more than three years ago.Her husband, Gurminder Toor, placed a consoling arm around her, but he, too, was found guilty of drug smuggling, as well as drug possession for the purpose of trafficking. The jury found Kirandeep not guilty of drug possession for the purpose of trafficking, but guilty of the lesser and included offence of simple drug possession.
Gurminder, 34, showed little emotion following the jury’s verdict, and quietly led his wife out of the Yates Memorial Centre where the Court of Queen’s Bench trial began last week in front of Madam Justice Johnna Kubik.
The California couple, who was transporting produce from California to Airdrie, Alta., both testified earlier they were surprised when border officers found 84 bricks of cocaine hidden inside the truck after they arrived at the Coutts border Dec. 2, 2017.
The drugs, considered at the time to be the largest cocaine seizure recorded by the Canada Border Services Agency in Alberta’s history, were worth more about $5 million if sold by the kilogram, and even more if broken down for sale on the street.
Border officers discovered the cocaine in the truck’s sleeper, where they were hidden in and behind a microwave oven, in a drawer, under a blanket on the bottom bunk bed, and under a mattress on the upper bunk. Yet the accused said they had no idea there were drugs in the truck.
Kirandeep’s lawyer, Patrick Fagan of Calgary, told the jury during his closing arguments Monday, the Crown failed to prove his client knew there was 100 kilograms of cocaine in the tractor-trailer her husband was driving, and she never should have been charged.
Gurminder’s Calgary lawyer, Greg Dunn, said it’s not unreasonable to believe the accused didn’t notice the drugs in the sleeper of the truck, because they were hidden from view and wouldn’t be seen by a casual glance around the sleeper.
The Crown’s case really hinged on whether the Toors knew there were drugs in the truck. Both of them denied any knowledge, and said they didn’t know how the cocaine ended up in the sleeper.
Crown Prosecutor Kent Brown said, however, the one-kilogram bricks of cocaine were not carefully hidden, and they would have been carefully concealed if someone else put the drugs in the truck and didn’t want the Toors to find them.
“Lets talk about the cocaine in the drawer, and I won’t even use the word hidden, here. They are simply stuffed in a drawer with three or four packs of gloves on top. If that is the drug dealer’s attempt to hide the cocaine, they did a terrible job.”
Brown said 44 of the bricks of cocaine were hidden under the upper mattress, which caused the mattress to visibly sit higher on the bunk than normal. The drugs hidden on the lower bunk were found when an officer simply tossed aside the blanket covering them, and all the drugs were in a sleeper only a few feet long and wide.
“Think about hiding 84, one-kilo bricks of cocaine within those confines with the intention that the occupants will not discover them. I suggest that is preposterous and farfetched.”
In the end, the jury agreed.
The Toors remain free on bail, but are scheduled to return to court May 10, when a date for a sentencing hearing will be scheduled.
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