Surinder Singh Cheema, a 31-year-old from Brampton, will spend 18 years behind bars in the U.S. after pleading guilty to his part in a massive international drug trafficking scheme. The U.S. Attorney’s Office disclosed that Cheema and his crew smuggled thousands of kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine from the U.S. into Canada, with Cheema confessing to moving at least 1.3 metric tons of meth and 764 kilograms of cocaine.
The operation unraveled in March 2022 when authorities intercepted 400 kilograms of cocaine in a New Jersey warehouse and seized another 96 kilograms of cocaine plus 86 kilograms of meth near Kansas City, Kansas, according to Matthew Podolsky, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Cheema’s crimes didn’t stop there—he aided an organized crime group in dodging Canadian law enforcement and, while in custody at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center in spring 2024, allegedly directed Toronto-area associates to threaten and shoot at debtors.
Cheema’s sentence includes four years of supervised release, and he and his partners must surrender $487,900 and a 2020 Mercedes Benz AMG GT63. Podolsky hailed the joint efforts of the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Peel Ontario Regional Police in cracking the case.