(Image source from: Yahoo)

A Canadian national of Punjabi origin has been arrested in the United States with a massive cache of drugs.

A truck driver, Inderjit Bhinder, was arrested in Detroit with 41 kg of cocaine and over 1 kg of heroin. At current exchange rates, the bootleg is worth $6 million or over Rs 43 crore.

After changing his statement several times, Bhinder told the U.S. Homeland Security agents that he was transporting the consignment from the U.S. to Canada.

The apprehension has taken place at a time when there is a thriving concern in the Punjabi diaspora in Canada over the involvement of their men in criminal activities, including drug smuggling.

In a similar incident in December 2017, Canadian border security officials had recovered 100 kg of cocaine at the U.S.-Canada border from a truck belonging to a Punjabi origin couple. They were surviving in California and were charged with smuggling drugs into Canada.

According to officials, at the time that this was the sizable suspected cocaine seizure in Alberta.

The criminal complaint disclosed that a Michigan police officer had stopped Bhinder's truck for a traffic violation but got suspicious because of Bhinder’s overly nervous behavior. The officer began searching the truck and his accompanying dog immediately caught the strong odor of drugs, kept in three bags not far from the driver's seat. Later, officers likewise found two phones and a GPS device along with some papers from the truck.

In his initial questioning, Bhinder told investigators that he entered the U.S. from Canada on September 17 and had driven to a nearby Michigan layby. When he returned to his truck after a break, he saw three unknown men standing in front of his truck who could have planted the bags in the truck.

However, he later accepted that he had met the men and that he was aware the bags contained drugs meant to be transported from the U.S. to Canada.

By Sowmya Sangam