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Press Release

Canadian Man Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison for Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Charges

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – A Canadian man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston in connection with a drug trafficking and money laundering organization that imported Canadian marijuana and MDMA, the club drug also known as “ecstasy” or “mollie,” into the United States.

 

Gursharan Singh, 33, of Toronto, Canada, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 70 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $240,000. 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. Singh and a Canadian co-conspirator, David Nguyen, recruited couriers to drive MDMA and marijuana to Joshua Rabinovitch, a Salem, Mass., man, who 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 February 2015, Rabinovitch was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his role in the drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracies. 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.

 

Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb and Matthew J. Etre, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston made the announcement today. The U.S. Attorney acknowledges the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs for its assistance in securing Singh’s temporary surrender to the United States. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seth B. Kosto and Timothy E. Moran of Weinreb’s Criminal Division prosecuted the case.

Updated April 27, 2017

Topic
Drug Trafficking