Sukhvinder Kaur Sangha, 47, sped away from border guards after being asked to pull over for a vehicle search, but was slowed down by rush hour traffic and arrested
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A woman who sped away from a U.S. border crossing into Surrey with 108 kilograms of methamphetamine in duffel bags in the trunk of her rental car has been sentenced to 5½ years in prison.
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The lawyer for Sukhvinder Kaur Sangha, 47, who has worked as a radio and TV host and producer for the past 10 years, had sought two years or less of house arrest plus three years probation for the 2021 smuggling attempt, according to a judgment in B.C. Supreme Court.
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The prosecutor was seeking 10 to 12 years in prison for the mother of three grown sons.
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Sangha pleaded guilty to importation of drugs — estimated by police to be worth between $1 million and $10 million , according to the B.C. Supreme Court judgment in New Westminster.
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Before sentencing, the court had to determine Sangha’s moral blameworthiness, according to the judgment by Justice John Gibb-Carsley.
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During a three-day hearing, Sangha said she imported the drugs to pay someone who was threatening to kill or harm her then-teenage son if she didn’t pay $150,000.
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Her lawyer argued her circumstances amount to “near duress” or coercion, but the prosecutor said her testimony should not be accepted as truthful, and Gibb-Carsley agreed.
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On Oct. 18, 2021, at 4:20 p.m., Sangha drove a rental car with a Florida licence plate to the Pacific Crossing in Surrey, showed her passport and said she had flown to Washington the day before for her aunt’s funeral, according to the judgment.
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The Canada Border Services Agency officer asked her to pull over for a vehicle search, but she sped away. Another border officer chased her with emergency lights on, honking at her to pull over, it said.
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She eventually slowed down because of rush hour traffic and was stopped and arrested. Police found four duffel bags with the drugs and two iPhones and an erased iPad.
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Court heard that Sangha had made three similar trips to the U.S. that year, in August, September and October, about two weeks before she was arrested, but there was no evidence showing she had imported drugs on those trips, although Gibb-Carsley suggested she had.
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Court heard Sangha was born in Prince George and lives in Burnaby, and once trained for and worked as a pharmacy technician. She had worked as a Punjabi-language producer and broadcaster for a decade.
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In that role, she had covered gang-related issues, interviewed politicians, celebrities and police officers, and helped organize a rally to warn the community about youth crime and drug use, court was told.
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All three of her sons, including the younger two who live at home, depend on her for financial and other support. Sangha, who is divorced, also cares for her sick 78-year-old mother and pays all the bills, Gibb-Carsley wrote.
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Her pre-sentence report did not include any letters of support because Sangha had not told her friends, family or coworkers about her arrest or criminal legal process because she was ashamed of what she did, he said.
