India native sentenced in California for international drug conspiracy
March 31st, 2010 - 2:56 am ICT by BNO NewsFRESNO, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) – A Bakersfield, California resident and Canada national was sentenced to 23 and a half years in prison for drug trafficking charges, prosecutors announced on Tuesday.
Harjeet Mann, 51, a native from India, was also ordered to forfeit $1,011,067 in cash from drug proceeds. He was arrested along co-defendants Sukhraj Dhaliwal, 40, and Jasdev Singh, 34, both of Bakersfield.
The three co-defendants were engaged in an international narcotic transactions conspiracy. They were contacted by an undercover agent who was trying to purchase large amounts of cocaine. The agent bought from Mann, 70 kilograms of cocaine and 50 kilogram buckets of ephedrine for $33,000 a bucket.
Furthermore, Mann claimed to have shipped approximately $36,000 kilograms of cocaine from Bakersfield to Toronto, Canada. He also said he smuggled the ephedrine from his native country of India. The ephedrine is known to be a precursor chemical used to manufacture methamphetamine.
During trial it was revealed that Mann was the leader of an international trafficking organization that smuggled cocaine into the United States from Mexico, and transported it to Canada, Detroit and Buffalo.
Mann and Singh are natives of the Punjabi village of Gureh, and Dhaliwal, from the near village of Chimna. They are considered modern day Robin hoods in their villages due to their philanthropic efforts in the construction of village roads, public urinals and marriages of poor girls, besides giving donations for religious causes.
Residents of the Punjabi village consider them as angels. Most of them didn’t know where the money came from. The local police, however, wasn’t very surprised. They said that it is common that natives returned from North America displaying large amounts of money that in most cases came from illegal activities.
Mann was found guilty of conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute at least 202 kilograms of cocaine and for attempting to possess with intent to distribute 70 kilograms of cocaine following delivery of approximately $843,000 in cash to an undercover narcotic agent in Bakersfield.
Dhaliwal was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Singh has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentence.
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