New Delhi: Guramrit Sidhu (60) from Ontario’s Brampton, popularly known as ‘king’, was the main logistics man in a drug syndicate that spanned Mexico, Canada, and the United States, according to a 2024 US federal indictment. On Thursday, Sidhu, a Canadian national, pleaded guilty in a Los Angeles federal court to leading a drug trafficking group and moving $17 million worth of cocaine and methamphetamine from the US into Canada.
Now, he faces a minimum of 20 years in prison.
The indictment—released in January 2024 in the US District Court for the Central District of California—said Sidhu “occupied a position of organiser, supervisor, and manager, and in this role, obtained substantial income and resources”.
From exploiting long-haul truck routes, roping in semi-trucks, and moving a huge load of cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexico to Canada via Los Angeles in a single month, Sidhu has been a big catch for the FBI.
Gurameit Sidhu, 62, of Brampton, Ontario, a Canadian national, pleaded guilty today to leading a criminal organization that – during a roughly one-month span – trafficked from the United States into Canada hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine worth up to $17… pic.twitter.com/C1bRcCKch1
— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) March 26, 2026
Sidhu’s pleading guilty marks the success of ‘Operation Dead Hand’, which the FBI launched in 2024. The operation looked to dismantle the pipeline connecting Mexican cartels to Montreal’s Italian mafia. Agencies from Canada and Mexico also took part in the investigation.
Sidhu was the lead defendant in the 2024 federal indictment, charging nine suspects with 23 criminal violations. The group he led was part of a broader drug network. Another 18-count indictment released in 2024 charged 10 defendants, including Robert Scoppa, an alleged associate of a Montreal-based Italian organised crime family); Mexico-based drug suppliers; and Canada-based truck drivers.
According to Sidhu’s plea agreement, “From September 2020 to February 2023, Sidhu led an organisation responsible for trafficking drugs from the US into Canada for distribution.”
With this, Sidhu becomes the seventh defendant to plead guilty. Several others have also pled guilty and received federal prison sentences ranging from 27 to 108 months.
US District Judge John A. Kronstadt scheduled a 9 July hearing for Sidhu’s sentencing. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
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A drug trafficking system: Tokens & semi trucks
Careful about details and more careful about how his drivers moved drugs, Sidhu successfully used a unique drug trafficking system such that it went unnoticed. To ensure the right people picked up the bags, he used cash as a secret key.
“Sidhu provided telephone numbers and serial numbers on bills of currency for couriers to use as a ‘token’ for identification,” the US Attorney’s Office said.
And, this system worked for a long time.
The FBI alleged that between September 2022 and October 2022, alone, the group moved 523 kg of methamphetamine and 347 kg of cocaine.
The indictment noted the scale of the illicit drug trafficking at the center of the two federal indictments—cumulatively involving approximately 845 kg of methamphetamine, 951 kg of cocaine, 20 kg of fentanyl, and four kg of heroin.
“Over $900,000 in cash was seized during the investigation. The estimated wholesale value of the narcotics seized was between $16-28 million, with an even greater value in Canada,” it said.
To transport the huge quantities of drugs, the group didn’t use cars; “long-haul semi trucks” moved the drugs across the border. Drivers, such as Ayush Sharma, 27, a resident of Brampton, and Subham Kumar, 31, a resident of Calgary, Canada, allegedly hid the drugs and transported them to Canada.
“Sidhu and co-conspirators then retrieved the cocaine and methamphetamine from locations within Canada for further distribution,” the US Attorney’s Office said.
In the indictments, US Attorney officials also revealed that investigators developed information regarding the organised crime group from Canadian ‘handlers’ and ‘dispatchers’ who travelled from Canada to Los Angeles for short amounts of time.
“The handlers coordinated the pick-up and delivery of large shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine, which were loaded onto long-haul semi-trucks destined for Canada. Wholesale quantities of fentanyl were seized as a result of the investigation.”
The transportation, according to the indictments, was coordinated by a network of drivers working with dozens of trucking companies. They made numerous border crossings from the US to Canada via the Detroit Windsor Tunnel, the Buffalo Peace Bridge, and the Blue Water Bridge.
“Until today, the organised members of this conspiracy operated with impunity throughout the many thousands of miles that comprise the North American continent, poisoning communities along the way,” noted Donald Alway, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
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The mafia connection
The indictments identified Guramrit Sidhu as a high-level supplier for some of the most powerful criminal figures in Canada. He was the big fish caught in ‘Operation Dead Hand’, the massive international investigation, where federal agencies weren’t only looking for the drivers, but also those who ran the syndicate.
The FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force (LA IMPACT), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, United States Customs and Border Protection, and law enforcement authorities in Mexico investigated the matter.
The investigation started in Mexico, where suppliers such as Jesus Ruiz Sandoval Jr.—he is currently absconding—allegedly provided wholesale quantities of drugs. From there, the drugs moved through Los Angeles, coordinated by “handlers” and “dispatchers” flying in from Canada for a short trip just to oversee the shipments.
According to a 2024 press statement by the US Department of Justice, one of Sidhu’s primary wholesale customers was Robert Scoppa, who was apprehended in Montreal. Scoppa, 55, has been identified as “an alleged Canadian drug trafficker with close ties to the Montreal Italian Mafia, and Guramrit Sidhu, of Canada”.
“Scoppa allegedly purchased the drugs wholesale from cartel-affiliated suppliers in Mexico, then handlers ensured they were loaded onto a long-haul semi-truck. Through coordination with trucking companies, the drugs were delivered across a port of entry into Canada,” the FBI said in February 2024.
This connection with Scoppa is important—it helped Sidhu’s operation transform from a simple smuggling ring into a vital part of the Italian mafia, according to the FBI. Mexican suppliers such as Jesus Ruiz Sandoval Jr. provided the raw product in Los Angeles, while Sidhu provided the “exportation organisation” required to get the drugs across the border, the agency said.
Scoppa brought the drugs wholesale from Mexican cartels and then used the syndicate’s infrastructure to get them into Canada.
Other accused include John Joe Soto, who is believed to have been working under Sandoval. Eduardo Carvajal, also an alleged large-scale drug-trafficker, is believed to have been exporting drugs from the United States to Canada. Barragan, a US resident, is another accused believed to be involved in the racket. Both Sharma and Kumar are believed to have been drivers involved in exporting drugs to Canada.
The two federal indictments, according to the US Attorney’s Office, collectively charged 19 individuals “for their alleged roles in the organised crime syndicate, including Mexico-based suppliers who brought large quantities of narcotics into the United States, United States distributors, a Canadian who led an exportation organisation, Canadian-based semi-truck drivers who operate in the United States, and a large-scale Canadian trafficker and Italian organised crime figure, Robert Scoppa, whom investigators allege was purchasing massive quantities of drugs on a wholesale basis”.
“Sidhu is alleged to have orchestrated the trafficking and exportation of large-scale quantities of controlled substances to Canada, working with several co-defendants described as suppliers,” the US Attorney’s Office said.
Another accused, Ivan Gravel Gonzalez, is alleged to be part of Sidhu’s “exportation” team based in the US.
“You’re talking about complex muscle movement, lots of different investigative teams working together in a variety of places throughout the duration of the investigation, and then asking if they’ll stick with you through the end,” said FBI Los Angeles Supervisory Special Agent Tracy Dockery.
“Getting the collaborative effort in three different countries, three different states, various time zones, and asking everyone to step up in that final moment of the takedown is no small feat.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)