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He said he's "the biggest there
is", now in jail big time
FRESNO: Harjeet
Mann, 50, a Canadian national and resident of Bakersfield; Sukhraj
Dhaliwal, 39, of Bakersfield and Gurmeet Bisla, 29, of Livingston
have been convicted in Fresno U.S. District Court on cocaine
distribution charges.
Messrs. Mann and
Dhaliwal were convicted of additional drug charges related to their
delivery of approximately $843,000 in cash to an undercover
narcotics agent.
Senior U.S.
District Judge Oliver Wanger also ruled that $1,011,068 in seized
U.S. currency represented proceeds used to facilitate drug
trafficking and ordered its forfeiture. In addition, $52,669 seized
from Mr. Mann’s bank accounts was previously forfeited
administratively by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
From 1994 to 2008
Mr. Mann was the leader of a cocaine smuggling operation that
transported large quantities of cocaine in semi-tractor trailers to
Canada for distribution to Asian gang members in the
Toronto
area, according to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karen Escobar and Deanna
Martinez, who are prosecuting the case.
Mr. Bisla, a drug
transporter for Mr. Mann, was stopped in
Sheldon,
Ill., while carrying $169,910 in drug proceeds in a
semi-tractor trailer, which he took without permission from NAV
Trucking, a small trucking company in
Livingston,
prosecutors say.
The investigation
culminated with the seizure of approximately $843,000 in U.S.
currency that Messrs. Mann and Dhaliwal, and a co-defendant, Jasdev
Singh, delivered to an undercover agent who had negotiated for the
purchase of 70 kilograms of cocaine. Mr. Singh, 34, also of
Bakersfield, entered a guilty plea to the drug conspiracy before the
start of trial.
During negotiations
with the undercover agent, Mr. Mann indicated that during the past
five years he had shipped approximately 36,000 kilograms of cocaine
from Bakersfield to Canada, say prosecutors.
“I’m the biggest
there is,” said Mr. Mann, according to prosecutors.
He also offered to
sell the undercover agent 50 kilogram buckets of ephedrine (a
precursor chemical used to manufacture methamphetamine) for $33,000
a bucket and told the undercover agent he smuggled the ephedrine
into the United States from his native country of India, according
to the government.
Mr. Dhaliwal
admitted at trial that he gives large sums of money to the villagers
of Chimna, notwithstanding the lack of any employment history for
him in the United States, where he has resided since the early
1990s.
The defendants face
a mandatory minimum prison term of 10 years and a maximum of life,
along with a maximum fine of $4 million, for the drug offenses.
1
July 2009
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