Published: Thursday, July 10, 2008
VANCOUVER - A man who allegedly bragged to undercover U.S. police officers that he imported 36 tonnes of cocaine into B.C. has led a double life as a modern day Robin Hood.
Authorities in California charged Harjeet Mann, 49, who hails from B.C., and two American men last month with conspiring to traffic 70 kilograms of cocaine.
But according to a report in the Asian Pacific Post, B.C.'s English language Asian newspaper, Mann and his alleged accomplices have hearts of gold.
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Font:****"While the suspects face life in a U.S. jail and fines up to $4 million, their friends and family in their native villages (in Punjab, India) say the three were philanthropists who spent millions of rupees to construct roads, improve civic amenities and arrange marriages for the poor," said the article in Thursday's Post.
A news release on the big bust issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Bakersfield, Calif., said Mann, Jasdev Singh, 32, and Sukharj Dhaliwal, 38, all reside in Bakersfield.
Police have accused Mann of shipping about 36,000 kilograms of cocaine from Bakersfield to Canada during the past five years.
Police said Canadian customers "cut" the product for street sales.
But the poor people of Cheemna village know a different side of the three men.
"Ever since they have settled in the U.S.A., they have been generously spending lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of rupees every year on construction of village roads, public urinals and marriages of poor girls, besides giving donations for religious causes," Amarjit Singh, former member of the Cheemna council, told media in India, the Post reported.
"They are frequent visitors here and no one can even imagine them as narcotic smugglers."
The three men face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
