4 MEN FOUND GUILTY ON DRUG COUNTS

Case Involved Pot, Mushrooms And Money Found In Van And
Truck

Four men who were stopped three years ago on the Trans-Canada Highway
with a U-Haul truck full of pot and magic mushrooms were convicted
this week in B.C. Supreme Court.

Kamloops Justice Richard Blair found Surrey resident Mandeep Singh
Binning and his brother-in-law Sukh Singh Mander guilty of possession
for the purpose of trafficking.

He also convicted Iqbal Singh and Ranjit Singh Sandhu -- both of
Ontario -- for possessing nearly $100,000 earned in the illicit drug
trade.

The four men were travelling between the Lower Mainland and Toronto in
two separate vehicles when they were stopped in June 2004 by RCMP officers.

The van in which Singh and Sandhu were driving was pulled over for
speeding west of Revelstoke and police found Singh with "a bundle of
$20 bills in Canadian currency, wrapped by elastic bands in a fashion
which the officer had seen before with money associated with drugs."

"A search of the van revealed $99,700 in $20 bills behind a panel in
the rear of the van," Blair stated in his ruling.

Other items in the van provided the link to the second vehicle -- a
U-Haul cube truck driven by Binning and Mander.

The U-Haul contained more than 200 kilograms of marijuana and 15
kilograms of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

The four were also charged with conspiracy to traffic, but Blair
acquitted them on that charge saying "there is no evidence before me
that ties the four of them together in a conspiracy."

"The occupants of each vehicle knew each other, but appear to have had
only passing knowledge of the occupants of the other vehicle," he said.

"If I were to believe Mr. Binning, it would appear that the individual
[known as] Gordie put the four accused together for the purpose of
travelling across the country, but I am not prepared to infer from
that evidence that the four accused were aware of the reasons they
were travelling together."

Blair described Binning as a 38-year-old father and businessman who
was "involved with the Surrey Chamber of Commerce, the Vancouver Board
of Trade, and the parents' committee associated with his daughter's
school.

The Surrey chamber changed its name to the Surrey Board of Trade a
year ago. Executive director Anita Huberman said Friday she had never
heard of Binning and that he is not a member of the
organization.

Binning had claimed at trial that he was an innocent party who agreed
to travel to Toronto with Mander with no knowledge of what was in the
cube truck.

But Binning was identified as the man who rented the U-Haul in Surrey
on June 15, 2004 for a one-way trip to Ontario at a cost of $1,900.

He later bought a padlock for the vehicle.

Binning testified that he met Singh and Sandhu for the first time that
evening at the Days Inn in Surrey, as well as a man named Gurbachan,
but known as Gordie.

The U-Haul was later left for a period at a Vancouver residence with
"a well-dressed man of Chinese descent, aged about 50 years."

The four picked up the vehicle close to midnight and started on their
journey, only to be stopped hours later.

The accused men had earlier argued that their Charter rights were
violated by the way the RCMP did the original search and
investigation.

They asked for the drugs and cash to be ruled inadmissible.

But Blair earlier rejected the anti-constitutional claims, saying
excluding the drug evidence would adversely affect the administration
of justice.