Surrey, B.C. truck driver gets 4 years in prison for smuggling meth across the border

A truck driver has been sentenced to four years in prison for smuggling 33 kilograms of methamphetamine into Canada from the U.S. back in 2018.

Surrey RCMP said officers with the Canada Border Services Agency conducted a screening of the tractor-trailer at the Pacific Highway border crossing on Nov. 18, 2018.

Officers found the methamphetamine hidden inside the driver’s cabin and later arrested the driver, Sarbjit Chahal, of Surrey, B.C.

Chahal was charged with the import/export of a controlled substance, and possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.

He later took the stand in his own defence at trial at 2021, and claimed he knowingly committed the alleged offences while under duress after having received death threats from someone who had asked him to act as a courier, police said in a news release on Monday.

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Chahal was sentenced to four years on the import/export charge and two and a half years for possession for the purpose of trafficking. The sentences will be served concurrently.

He is also banned from owning a firearm for life.