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Former B.C. gangster arrested for drug operation in India

Jimi Sandhu, deported in 2016, accused of owning drug-manufacturing facility
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Jimi Sandhu

A former Abbotsford man who was previously identified as the leader of a local gang has been arrested for allegedly running a drug operation in India, according to online media reports from that nation.

Jimi Sandhu, 28, was the alleged factory owner and one of the key players involved in the manufacturing of the drug ketamine, as well as hash, cocaine and opium, according to the Hindustan Times and The Times of India.

The reports indicate that Sandhu was arrested last Friday in Delhi and is the owner of Vijay Industries in Goa, India.

A press release from the investigating agency, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), stated that the DRI dismantled four manufacturing facilities that were controlled by an international drug syndicate with close ties to southeast Asia and Canada.

The agency seized 308 kilograms of ketamine, 1.5 kg of opium, 7.8 kg of hash and 2,000 kg of raw material.

Sandhu was the 11th person arrested in connection to the case.

Sandhu, who moved to Canada from India at the age of seven, has been living in India since being deported in early 2016 due to his criminal history.

He is one of three people who were the subject of a public warning by the Abbotsford Police Department (APD) in 2015.

The APD said at the time that Sandhu, along with Sandeep Sidhu and Gavin Grewal, posed a “significant harm to the safety of the community and anyone who may associate with them.”

The three men were described as having “a criminal lifestyle that includes violence, drugs and weapons.”

Grewal – who was gunned down last December in a North Vancouver apartment – was identified by Abbotsford Police Chief Bob Rich, in an interview with the Abbotsford News, as the leader of one of two rival gangs in the community.

Sandhu and Sidhu were identified by Rich as the leaders of the other gang.

Sandhu has two criminal convictions – for assault with a weapon and possession of an unauthorized prohibited or restricted weapon.

According to court documents, the convictions were related to Sandhu beating a man with a brick outside of a pub and later using brass knuckles to threaten someone he believed had stolen money from him.

Sandhu was charged in 2014 with second-degree murder in the killing of Red Scorpions gangster Matt Campbell, who staggered into a Fraser Valley Auto Mall business bleeding profusely from a stab wound to his neck.

But charges were later dropped against Sandhu, due to what Crown said was an unlikelihood of conviction.

According to court documents related to his 2015 deportation hearing, Sandhu argued that he should be permitted to remain in Canada because he had changed his life and had moved to a different province away from negative influences.

He said he was in a stable marriage, had stopped drinking, was attending AA meetings, and was gainfully employed.

However, the judge ruled that Sandhu should be deported because it had not been established in court that Sandhu was involved in any “regulated, ongoing program” that was “likely to generate positive rehabilitative outcomes.”

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Police were at the Fraser Valley Auto Mall in January 2014 to investigate the murder of Matt Campbell. Jimi Sandhu was charged with the killing, but charges were later dropped. (Abbotsford News file photo)


Vikki Hopes

About the Author: Vikki Hopes

I have been a journalist for almost 40 years, and have been at the Abbotsford News since 1991.
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