Ontario trucking exec admits he was boss of large cross-border cocaine and meth smuggling ring

The owner of an Ontario trucking company has admitted he was the secret boss behind a hyperactive network of commercial truckers smuggling large loads of cocaine and meth from the United States into Canada.

Guramrit Sidhu, 62, of Brampton, Ont., also known as “King,” pleaded guilty in Los Angeles to engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise on Thursday, after he was arrested in Canada in 2024 as the lead defendant in a sprawling international investigation.

In return for Sidhu pleading guilty to one of 17 charges he was facing, U.S. prosecutors agreed to not seek a sentence higher than the mandatory minimum of 20 years imprisonment. Prosecutors also promised not to object to Sidhu applying for a transfer to a prison in Canada, provided he has served at least 10 years in prison first.

Sidhu has not yet been sentenced but the agreement almost certainly prevents the judge from imposing the maximum punishment, which is life imprisonment and a $2 million fine.

In court, Sidhu, a bald man with a salt and pepper moustache and goatee who owned a trucking company in Brampton, Ont., admitted that starting around 2020 he was the boss behind a vortex of high-value loads of cocaine and meth bought from suppliers in Los Angeles and hauled north on commercial transport trucks.

What emerged was an active network of truck drivers shuttling drugs across the border, using the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, the Peace Bridge in Niagara, and the Blue Water Bridge connecting Michigan to Sarnia.

Sidhu admitted he had made a substantial income as an organizer of a criminal network of five or more people working together to commit drug crimes.

“In a single month in 2022, defendant orchestrated the distribution of eight separate drug loads, totaling approximately 523 kilograms of methamphetamine and 347 kilograms of cocaine, which law enforcement seized,” the plea agreement signed by Sidhu says. “These drug loads had an estimated wholesale value of approximately $15 to $17 million USD.”

In text messages, “water” was code for meth and “girls” for cocaine; “Lisa” meant Los Angeles. They used the unique serial number on bank notes to confirm identities of those exchanging the drugs as an underworld form of two-factor authentication. The drugs originally came from Mexico.

But what Sidhu did not know is that one of the men on the other end of the encrypted phone apps he was arranging transportation logistics with had become an informant for the FBI. The snitch was trusted because before he became a cooperating witness he had worked with Sidhu.

Investigators started tracking Sidhu’s drug trade through the informant. Sidhu admitted to at least nine specific large loads from 2021 to 2022, and that he ran the network until Feb. 14, 2023.

In one case, just after midnight on Sept. 27, 2022, after 80 kilos of cocaine had crossed into Canada and arrived at his trucking yard, Sidhu retrieved it from the truck himself and took it to his Brampton home, the FBI said. When daylight broke, Sidhu then took the boxes to a parking lot and passed them to another distributor.

Sidhu was named as one of the top-level targets when two large indictments were unsealed in Los Angeles as the result of Operation Dead Hand. Among the other Canadians named in the indictments is a man with a notorious last name: Roberto Scoppa, brother of two leaders in a faction of the Montreal Mafia who were killed in 2019 during a mob war. Scoppa is still fighting extradition to the United States.

Sidhu gave up his extradition battle in October 2024.

He signed a plea agreement this February before his change of plea hearing this week.

The agreement required him to plead guilty to one charge, not to contest facts outlined in the agreement, obey all court orders, not commit another crime, be truthful with the court, and forfeit all money and property derived from or used in the crime.

In return, U.S. prosecutors will ask that the other counts against him in the indictment be dismissed, although the judge is allowed to consider the dismissed charges as factors in sentencing.

Also, if Sidhu “demonstrates an acceptance of responsibility for the offense,” prosecutors will recommend a reduction in the sentencing guideline levels for his crime.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for July.

As a Canadian citizen, Sidhu is expected to be deported to Canada from the United States after his incarceration. His plea agreement does not extend to Canadian authorities, meaning it does not preclude Sidhu facing charges in Canada when he eventually returns.

Sidhu’s U.S. lawyer did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication deadline.

Sidhu is the seventh defendant to plead guilty in the Operation Dead Hand cases, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

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