Toronto, February 7, 2007
Sohan Sahota & J. Gill
NRI, Avtar Sandhu, 39, a truck driver of Brampton,
has been charged with possession of a controlled substance for
the purpose of trafficking. More than 200 kilos (packed in one-kilo
bricks) of cocaine was hidden in a load of vegetables in the back
of a tractor trailer.
Police said the drugs are worth about $8 million
and it could have been turned into $20 million worth of street
sales.
It happened on Sunday morning when an Ministry of Transportation
Officer (M.T.O) saw the two vehicles parked by the side of the
road and stopped to see if he could be of any assistance. One
was a tractor trailer that southbound on James Snow Parkway from
Steeles Ave., heading toward the 401. From there, it could have
gone anywhere, Mannella said.
MTO officer noticed the driver became nervous and
he decided to take a closer look and called the police. As soon
as reinforcements arrived, the driver was immediately taken into
custody. He has been held in custody without bail.
"It was just a suspicious conversation with
the driver of the truck," Mannella said. "We have no
indication right now what it was doing in our region.
Today, the police displayed package after package
of the illegal drug to the world at a press conference. It is
the largest seizure of cocaine in the history of the Halton Police.
Police and Investigators are still trying to determine
where the drugs were coming from and where they were heading.
It is believed that the shipment could be connected to a larger
drug ring.
"What you see here represents a lot of potential
criminal activity," explains Det. Insp. Chris Perkins of
Halton Regional Police. "Not only from crimes committed in
order to make individual purchases, but from the clearly sophisticated
group responsible for transporting a shipment of such size and
value."
