Canadian authorities on hunt for convicted Sikh cocaine smuggler who fled to India

Toronto: Canadian authorities are on the hunt for a 60-year-old Sikh truck driver who escaped to India after being convicted of smuggling 80 kg of cocaine into Canada from the US, according to media reports.

Raj Kumar Mehmi was sentenced in absentia by a provincial court in British Columbia in November to 15 years in prison after his arrest in 2017 for smuggling cocaine, the CBC reported on Wednesday.

However, a month before on Oct 11, before he could be sentenced, Mehmi boarded a flight from Vancouver to New Delhi, the Vancouver Sun reported.

A Canada-wide warrant has been issued for Mehmi, the CBC reported quoting Arash Seyed, a spokesman with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) federal serious and organised crime division.

Police in British Columbia have also approached Interpol to post a red notice for the arrest and return of Mehmi, a resident of Surrey, it said.

A red notice asks member countries to help locate, arrest and extradite a person to face criminal charges, and India is a member of Interpol.