Prosecutors failed to convince British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Neena Sharma that when a trucker and fella by the name of Gurpreet Mand was trying to cross into Canada from the state of Washington on August 18, 2017, he knew he was smuggling 13 kilograms of heroin, with a street value of $1 million, in a blue suitcase located in the trunk of his Hyundai Accent.

Here’s what the Vancouver Sun folks quoted the judge as saying to the prosecutors, “Accordingly, I am not satisfied that the only inference that is supported by a common-sense view of all the evidence is that Mr. Mand knew he brought heroin into Canada. Instead, I find it plausible that Mr. Sidhu, or someone working under Mr. Sidhu’s direction, put the suitcase into Mr. Mand’s car while he was repairing Mr. Sidhu’s truck at the rest area.”

Gurpreet Mand got into a fix after he stopped to help his friend and fellow trucker, Pirthi Sidhu, fix his broken down rig. While Gurpreet Mand was helping Pirthi Sidhu fix his rig, a blue suitcase containing 13 kilograms of heroin, with a street value of $1 million, slipped up in Gurpreet Mand’s trunk.

Gurpreet Mand says he doesn’t know how the blue suitcase heroin got into his trunk.

Pirthi Sidhu says he doesn’t know how the blue suitcase heroin got into the trunk.

Due to neither Gurpreet Mand or his trucker buddy friend knowing how the blue suit case heroin got into Mand’s trunk, the prosecutor decided to use science and technology in order to find out, once and for all, who placed the $1 million worth of blue suitcase heroin in Gurpreet Mand’s trunk.

The Canada Border Services officers got the $1 million worth of blue suitcase heroin and then handed it over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who then used the little brush thingy and all those fancy chemicals to test for fingerprints on the blue suitcase and the 13 kilograms of heroin.

While the testing of the fingerprints were going on, the RCMP also combed through text messages between the two trucker pals, Gurpreet Mand and Pirthi Sidhu.

The text messages did bear a lot of ripe fruit, showing that Gurpreet Mand knew more about the 13 kilograms of blue suitcase heroin than what he was letting in on.

Happy dance, happy dance, happy dance, is what the RCMP and prosecutors were doing after reading those text messages. But like all sunny days, dark clouds always come along to rain down on everybody’s parade. And for the RCMP and the prosecutors, the dark clouds were the fingerprint results.

The RCMP didn’t find Gurpreet Mand’s fingerprints on the blue suitcase or the 13 kilograms of heroin and they also weren’t able to determine whose fingerprints were all over the blue suitcase that contain the 13 kilograms of heroin with a street value of $1 million.

Blow to their case?! Yes indeedy! Reasonable doubt is something the prosecution always has to get over. The fact that the fingerprint tests weren’t backing up those text messages between the trucker pals was enough to raise reasonable doubt in British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Neena Sharma’s mind about what Gurpreet Mand knew about the blue suitcase heroin and when he knew it: “I find it plausible that Mr. Sidhu, or someone working under Mr. Sidhu’s direction, put the suitcase into Mr. Mand’s car while he was repairing Mr. Sidhu’s truck at the rest area.”

Needless to say, Gurpreet Mand is happier than a dog with a pork chop bone. Because if he had been found guilty of smuggling 13 kilograms of heroin, with a street value of $1 million, in a blue suit case located in the trunk of his Hyundai Accent, then Gurpreet Mand would have face a possible maximum sentence of life in prison.