Ontario trucker who hauled cartel’s cocaine to Canada pleads guilty

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An Ontario truck driver who shuttled cocaine and heroin into Canada for a high-volume drug ring has quietly waived his extradition and struck a plea deal in California, all while most of his co-accused are still fighting extradition from Canada or are fugitives in Mexico.

The Indian national was on a work permit in Canada when he started hauling loads of drugs, allegedly for a Mafia-linked Montrealer, Mexican cartels and American narcos.

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Ayush Sharma, 25, was caught red-handed delivering 19 kilos of drugs to a garage in Montreal, a victim of an elaborate undercover operation.

The smuggling ring moved large quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin from Mexico to Los Angeles and then into Canada aboard transport trucks, with one branch feeding Ontario and another Quebec.

When the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled “Operation Dead Hand” in Los Angeles in January, there were 15 people named in two indictments, including five living in Canada.

Sharma was one of them. A Brampton-based commercial truck driver, he was the youngest of those arrested. He faced extradition to the United States for a trial in California.

At a bail hearing in Brampton in February, court weighed allegations by U.S. prosecutors, including that Sharma had made previous drug smuggling trips on behalf of the narcos.

His plea for bail was rejected by Justice David E. Harris. Although Sharma has no previous criminal record, he also has few ties to Canada. He is not a Canadian citizen nor permanent resident.

“The organization that Mr. Sharma allegedly worked for is far-flung and appears to be powerful and with substantial funds at its disposal. He is alleged — albeit without much in the way of specific evidence — to have imported drugs previously on behalf of the organization. Based on the present transaction and on the theory that he has completed other similar transactions, he likely has a good store of funds secreted away,” Harris said when denying Sharma’s bail.

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With his bail denied, Sharma waived extradition on March 11, and was transferred to the United States on March 27. He was held in custody by U.S. Marshals pending a court appearance, held on April 3, which took less than five minutes. Judge Charles Eick refused his release saying someone facing a stiff drug sentence is presumed a flight risk and danger to the community.

Sharma, though, had no plans to flee.

He wanted his case dealt with as soon as possible. One month later, on Sept. 3, Sharma scrawled his signature on a 19-page plea agreement with the government.

He agreed to plead guilty to one of four counts he faced in the indictment that was filed against ten people. He has an imposing list of co-accused, including Roberto Scoppa, the brother of two leaders of the Montreal Mafia, Jesus Ruiz Sandoval, an American narco living in a house filled with guns, and Eduardo Carvajal, an alleged Mexican cartel leader known as “Primo.”

Sharma’s guilty plea was accepted on Sept. 27.

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His quick plea does not signal plans to be a witness against them, his U.S. lawyer, Marilyn Bednarski, told National Post.

“Ayush is a young man who made the poor decision to participate as one of several other truck drivers in transporting drugs from the U.S. to Canada.

“He has accepted his own responsibility for his behaviour, for his own role in the offence, but he is not a witness against anyone else. I do not expect that he would be called by anyone, prosecutor or defence, as a witness in any court proceeding,” Bednarski said.

His plea agreement says Sharma accepts his guilt for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin, and that he won’t contest the facts in court. He also agreed not to commit any additional crime.

In return, the government agreed to ask that three remaining charges against Sharma in the indictment be dismissed and to recommend a reduced sentence.

Sharma didn’t know when the plot to smuggle drugs from the United States into Canada first began, but he admits he joined in with the plan, knowing exactly what he was signing up for when he agreed to drive an 18-wheeler from Los Angeles to Montreal.

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His job was to pick up kilos of bulk drugs in Los Angeles and haul them across the border into Canada to deliver them.

Sharma and his co-conspirators used an underworld form of two-factor identification to confirm identity along the logistics chain. He would text a photo of a banknote he had with him that showed its unique serial number to an intermediary, who then forwarded it to a man running the drug stash house. Sharma then needed to hand over that same bill to pick up the drugs.

This was done in reverse for the delivery.

While he was driving north, Sharma was sent an address in Montreal and a photo of a Canadian $20 for the same identity verification. His instructions were not to deliver the drugs unless someone at that address first gave him that same bill. After crossing the border, Sharma moved the drugs from his big rig to his Jeep Wrangler and, on Dec. 2, 2022, drove to the address on Avenue du Parc.

When he pulled over out front, a man approached his car and talked to him through the window.

What none of them knew was that the organizer of the transport logistics in Los Angeles was a secret snitch working for the FBI.

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Before Sharma arrived on Parc, RCMP officers staked out the place, and while Sharma was talking to the Montrealer at his Jeep, cops rushed in and arrested them. When officers grabbed Sharma, he was holding the $20 with the serial number that was needed to unlock the delivery. The RCMP found the cocaine and heroin in his Jeep.

The maximum possible sentence for Sharma is life imprisonment, but his plea deal ensures he will serve much less.

The plea agreement hints at the expected range. Provided he gets no more than nine years, Sharma agreed to waive his right to appeal it. And as long as he gets no less than 7.25 years, the government promised not to object to it.

Sharma has his sentencing hearing in January.

The inside story of Operation Dead Hand was detailed in an exclusive National Post investigation in February, called “The secret snitch who brought down the narcos.”

The case against Sharma and his colleagues closely mirrors an even larger transnational drug smuggling syndicate that was broken up this week with raids and arrests in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

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That syndicate, allegedly led by former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, is similarly accused of smuggling cocaine into the United States, storing it in stash houses around Los Angeles, and then transferring it to Canadian truck drivers to haul it across the border.

Ten of the 16 men named in Thursday’s U.S. indictment are Canadians or residents of Canada. Wedding remains a fugitive with a US$50,000 reward offered for information leading to his arrest.

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