Canada-To-Salem Drug Trafficker Sentenced

BOSTON, MA – A Canadian man was sentenced Thursday in connection with a drug trafficking and money laundering organization that drove Canadian marijuana and ecstasy into the U.S.

Gursharan Singh, 33, of Toronto, Canada, was sentenced to 70 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $240,000. Singh and a Canadian co-conspirator recruited courier to drive MDMA and marijuana to Joshua Robinovitch in Salem.

Robinovitch was sentenced to two years in prison in February 2015 for his role in the conspiracies.

In May 2014, Singh was arrested in Canada and, in July 2016, he was temporarily surrendered from Canada to the United States to plead guilty to the charges in the indictment and unrelated drug charges in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. In August 2016, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute MDMA and marijuana and one count of money laundering conspiracy.

Beginning in the summer of 2011 to approximately March 2012, Singh agreed with co-conspirators to move MDMA and marijuana over the Canadian-U.S. border. Rabinovitch sold the drugs and returned the proceeds to Canada. In March 2012, Singh and Nguyen recruited Shivinder Kanwal to drive 15 kilograms of MDMA to Rabinovitch in Boston. In April 2012, Singh and Nguyen separately recruited co-defendant, Adeel Bhutta, to pick up $240,000 in drug proceeds from Rabinovitch.

In July 2014, Bhutta was sentenced to 28 months in prison for his role in the money laundering conspiracy. In December 2016, Nguyen was sentenced to 120 months in prison for his role in the drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracies. Kanwal was sentenced to 24 months of probation for his role in the drug trafficking conspiracy.

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