Canada: Punjabi flees to India to escape 15-year jail term for drug smuggling
A Canadawide arrest warrant has been issued against a 60-year-old Punjabi truck driver from the British Columbia province who fled to India after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for drug trafficking. Prince Mehmi of Surrey was sentenced in November for smuggling 80 kg of cocaine into British Columbia through the Canada-US Pacific Highway border crossing.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said it had sought Interpol’s help to locate and provisionally arrest Mehmi. The Canada Border Services Agency seized 80 kg of cocaine from inside the semi-trailer truck. Mehmi was arrested on November 6, 2017.
At that time, cocaine was $ 320 million. On September 6, 2022, a Supreme Court judge convicted Mehmi and was scheduled to pronounce the sentence on January 9, 2023.
On 11 October 2022, Mehmi fled to India after boarding a flight from Vancouver and reached New Delhi. Mehmi’s Canadian passport was seized at the time of his arrest, police said. Due to the lengthy process of his arrest and conviction, Mehmi managed to get a new Canadian passport and fled the country.