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SURREY, B. C. — British Columbia police are asking Interpol to issue a red notice for the arrest and return of a Surrey man who fled to India after being convicted of smuggling cocaine into Canada from the United States.
Truck driver Raj Kumar Mehmi, 60, sentenced in absentia through a B. C. A provincial court handed down a sentence in November on the man sentenced to 15 years in prison after his arrest in 2017 for smuggling 80 kilograms of cocaine.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge found Mehmi guilty of importation of a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking in September 2022.
He was to be sentenced next month, but RCMP say the man boarded a flight from Vancouver to New Delhi a month after he was convicted.
A Red Notice calls on member countries to locate, arrest and extradite a user to face criminal charges, and India is a member of Interpol.
Arash Seyed, a spokesman with RCMP federal serious and organized crime division, said a Canada-wide warrant has also been issued for Mehmi.
“If you locate this suspect or have any information on his whereabouts, please come forward and contact the local police department,” Seyed said at a news conference at which the arrest warrant was issued in Surrey on Wednesday.
The Canada Border Services Agency said Mehmi’s truck stopped while at the Pacific Highway border crossing into Metro Vancouver.
Holly Stoner, the agency’s director for the Pacific region, said Mehmi’s van was randomly chosen for the secondary examination and that it was in a more detailed search that the drugs were discovered.
“During their search, CBSA officials discovered 80 bricks of cocaine inside the sleeper cab of the advertising vehicle,” Stoner said. “The driver was arrested and taken into custody. “
Seyed said the RCMP confiscated Mehmi’s passport after his arrest, but the man appeared to have won a second edition of the Passport Canada document to allow him to escape.
“There are certain situations where a person can download a passport, such as in emergency situations,” Seyed explained.
Police said they were recommended by Interpol “as a request to authorities around the world to locate and provisionally arrest” the man pending extradition or other legal action.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2023.
The Canadian Press
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