Brampton man pleads guilty to leading criminal organization that trafficked drugs from U.S. into Canada

A photo posted by FBI Los Angeles shows the drugs seized in connection with an investigation into a Brampton man who trafficked drugs from the U.S. into Canada. (FBI)

A 62-year-old Brampton man has pleaded guilty to leading a criminal organization that trafficked drugs worth up to $17 million from the United States into Canada over a one-month span.

In a news release on Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced Guramrit Sidhu’s guilty plea to one count of engaging in continuing a criminal enterprise.

He could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment, U.S. officials said, noting that his sentencing is scheduled for July 9.

His plea agreement states that Sidhu orchestrated the distribution of eight separate drug loads, including 523 kilograms of methamphetamine and 347 kilograms of cocaine from Sept. 13, 2022, to Oct. 24, 2022.

“After buying the bulk quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine in the U.S., Sidhu arranged for the narcotics’ transportation into Canada via long-haul semi-trucks for further distribution,” the attorney’s office said.

“Sidhu provided telephone numbers and serial numbers on bills of currency for couriers to use as a ‘token’ for identification purposes during the delivery and transportation of the cocaine and methamphetamine.”

The district attorney’s office said Sidhu and his co-conspirators then retrieved the drugs from locations within Canada for further distribution.

Sidhu’s drug trafficking organization operated between Sept. 2020 and Feb. 2023, U.S. officials said.

Sidhu was arrested in Jan. 2024 and was extradited to the U.S. months later in October and is the lead defendant in a 23-count federal indictment that targeted the criminal organization.

U.S. officials noted that he is the seventh defendant to plead guilty. Others have been sentenced to federal prison terms ranging from more than two years to nine years.