Brampton man sentenced in U.S. to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking

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 Brampton, Ont., man has been sentenced to 20 years after pleading 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.

Guramrit Sidhu’s sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt on Thursday.

The 63-year-old, who is the lead defendant in a U.S. federal indictment targeting a drug trafficking group, took a plea deal earlier this year for the charge of engaging in continuing criminal enterprise.

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

Sidhu was arrested in January 2024 and was extradited to the U.S. months later.

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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.