An Indian national smuggling 174 lbs of ecstasy into the US from Canada as part of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate has been convicted in a Washington court.
A federal jury, after a three-day trial presided over by District Judge Thomas O. Rice, on Wednesday found Indian national Jaskaran Singh, 31, guilty on possession with intent to distribute charges.
Singh faces a maximum prison sentence of twenty years and potential deportation. Sentencing will be set on June 25.
“Mr. Singh trafficked more than 170 pounds of illegal drugs across our northern border into the United States,” stated Acting United States Attorney Richard Barker.
The seizure was an historic one for the Eastern Washington region, worth more than $7.8 million, he said.
“[Border agents] intercepted this poison before it could harm communities in Eastern Washington,” said Barker.
“The transnational drug-trafficking organization for whom Singh worked had identified the ideal, isolated location in rural Washington to smuggle illegal drugs across the northern border.”
“Today’s guilty verdict sends a clear message that those who seek to exploit our nation’s borders by flooding our communities with dangerous controlled substances will be held accountable for their crimes.”
Evidence presented during the trial established on April 29, 2023, at approximately 10 p.m., “three unknown individuals” were observed in a remote area just south of the US-Canada border, approximately a kilometre west of the Danville, Washington port of entry, a press release from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) states.
The three individuals carried backpacks and a suitcase across 300 yards of remote wilderness to a rental 2014 Honda Odyssey, which was driven by Singh along a “dead end, dirt road” called Fourth of July Creek Road.
“The three men then returned to the Canadian side of the border, escaping apprehension by law enforcement.”
Border patrol agents “responded to the area, and stopped Singh, who was driving the rented Honda Odyssey away from the US Canada border.”
In the van, agents found backpacks and a suitcase, the “same as those carried across the border by the three individuals, who tripped the motion sensor cameras just a few minutes earlier.”
Agents then secured a search warrant and “seized 173.7 pounds of MDMA stored inside the backpacks and suitcase.”
“Investigators later located a map of the area on Singh’s phone and messages detailing where Singh should go, when he should arrive, and directing him to ‘leave the back hood open,’” said the press release.
Canada has been under global scrutiny in recent months over cross-border drug trafficking syndicates operating chiefly out of British Columbia, where drugs are manufactured from precursor chemicals from China and smuggled across the US-Canada border.
President Donald Trump since the November election has repeatedly pointed out this issue, and has been met with resistance from Canadian leaders across the board. The federal government and Alberta provincial government made efforts to secure the border with drones, equipment and increased policing.
As Sam Cooper from The Bureau reports, Vancouver is a hotspot for narcotics trafficking, with “lax port controls, weak laws, and a vast corporate and economic infrastructure facilitating international money laundering and underground banking.”
These factors have “contributed to the region’s growth as a drug export center dominated by Chinese Triads and Mexican cartels,” argues Cooper.
The Bureau earlier reported on data from the State Department’s 2024 report from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, which details the correlation between MDMA and fentanyl trafficking in transnational drug trafficking operations.
Cartels traffic “both MDMA and fentanyl due to overlapping production and distribution networks,” wrote Cooper.
“While fentanyl dominates US overdose deaths, MDMA remains lucrative, often produced in clandestine labs using precursor chemicals sourced from the same global suppliers—primarily in China—that fuel fentanyl synthesis.”
“Transnational criminal organizations in Canada receive the bulk of fentanyl precursor chemicals from the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” states the 2024 State Department report.
“Canadian Border Services Agency estimated that 98% of Canada’s fentanyl-making materials seized in western Canada originated in the PRC.”
“In the past year, Canadian law enforcement conducted several high-profile raids on fentanyl labs in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario.”
“In April 2023, the Vancouver Police Department raided a fentanyl super lab that possessed approximately $5.9 million in illicit drugs. In August 2023, police in Ontario dismantled a large network of opioid producers through Project Odeon in the Greater Toronto Area. In November 2023, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia raided a large fentanyl lab and seized 2.5 million doses of fentanyl.”