Alberta gun smuggler sentenced to prison in U.S.

A photo of a gun connected with straw buyer Harsimran Dhaliwal, from Sherwood Park, who was arrested in Texas in 2023 and sentenced in the U.S. in 2025 for purchasing handguns with the intention of smuggling them into Canada. (Source: Edmonton Police Service)

A Sherwood Park man will spend almost seven years in American prison for purchasing handguns to smuggle into Canada.

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Harsimran Dhaliwal, 31, was sentenced to 82 months in prison and fined $30,000 on Jan. 16 in the U.S.

He was arrested in Texas in September 2023 after being identified as a straw buyer who was working with other straw buyers to purchase and ship handguns to Canada.

A gun found by Edmonton Police Service’s drug and gang unit in November 2022 in an Edmonton home – where seven other guns and more than $900,000 in drugs and cash were seized – led authorities to Texas.

According to the west Texas district of the U.S. attorney’s office, two guns Dhaliwal bought in the Austin area were recovered and linked to crimes in Canada.