Appeal dismissed for father who was ‘trusted lieutenant’ in cocaine trafficking operation

A man who joined a criminal enterprise while trying to save his floundering trucking business recently lost his bid for a shorter sentence, following a recent B.C. Court of Appeal decision.

Sukhvir Singh was running his trucking company when business suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic and creditors threatened to seize his trucks. Singh was also the sole breadwinner for his family, including one child requiring near constant attention due to a genetic disorder characterized by developmental delay.

Around the time Singh was becoming involved in drug trafficking, undercover cops in Ontario found a connection who told them they could buy cheap cocaine and heroin in Vancouver.

Singh and his co-accused eventually sold a bag of cocaine as well as a sample bag of heroin to an undercover for $2,000. Approximately two months later, they sold the officer two kilograms of cocaine in vacuum-sealed bricks for $112,000.

Eventually, Singh, his co-accused, and the undercover cop agreed to do a $265,000 deal for five kilograms of cocaine.

Singh and his co-accused arrived at a Coquitlam hotel on April 7, 2021. Singh’s co-accused was carrying a Louis Vuitton bag with five kilograms of cocaine.

The two were arrested in the hotel parkade that night.

Singh was sentenced to three and a half years for trafficking cocaine and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Prior to his sentencing, Singh had no criminal record.

While many people who join a criminal enterprise are driven by “greed, pure and simple,” the judge concluded Singh was an exception.

“I accept that Mr. Singh’s trucking business was suffering during the COVID pandemic and faced other financial challenges,” the judge wrote. “I also accept that Mr. Singh’s concerns extended to his ongoing ability to support his family.”

However, the judge also described Singh as a “trusted lieutenant,” brokering deals and delivering product in a: “sophisticated drug operation with both international and interprovincial components.”

Singh asked for his sentence to be reduced to two years less one day, served conditionally in his community. He argued the sentence failed to: “avoid dramatic consequences for an offender’s family, especially their children.”

Sentencing is a “balancing exercise,” wrote appeals court Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten.

The sentence acknowledged collateral consequence as well as the gravity of the crime and Singh’s “moral blameworthiness,” she wrote.

Singh also contended the judge didn’t give enough weight to the fact he pleaded guilty.

That argument is “without merit,” DeWitt-Van Oosten wrote.

Singh, “chose to involve himself in a sophisticated drug operation with both international and interprovincial components,” she wrote. “He trafficked in kilograms of hard drugs, an offence that carries significant foreseeable harms to individuals, to families, and to society at large. The fact that he did not reoffend after his arrest and worked to lawfully re-establish his business is commendable; however, it does not detract from the gravity of his offences and his significant moral blameworthiness.”

Singh’s appeal was dismissed.