Davinder Singh of Delta, and Thai Hoang Nguyen of Surrey, were denied bail last week after allegedly attempting to buy 85 kilo of cocaine

Davinder Singh of Delta, and Thai Hoang Nguyen of Surrey, were denied bail last week in Bakersfield, Calif., after allegedly attempting to buy 85 kilos of cocaine with almost $1.5 million U.S.U.S. authorities also announced charges last week against six Canadians - including four from B.C. - after a two-year investigation into another multi-million dollar smuggling ring.Three of the B.C. accused - Shane Kelter, Walther Edgardo (Sharky) Orellana Aguilar and John (Keith) Wark - have not been extradited, while a fourth - Jason I. Ming Wei - was picked up at Los Angeles International Airport Sept. 28 and remains in custody.Trucker Saran told U.S. officials after he was arrested last Wednesday that he had left his truck unattended for several hours at the New Westminster office of Concord Transportation where anyone could have placed the pills in his load.But U.S. special agent Ruirk Pitstick refuted that claim in court documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun."I know that drug traffickers do not normally entrust large quantities of drugs to unwitting or unknowing couriers," Pitstick said. "This is true because an unknowing courier might inadvertently discover the drugs and turn them over to the police."In the Singh-Nguyen bust, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration followed the Canadians and two American associates, Sokha Bhopal and Vath Lim, last month as they allegedly arranged and completed a cocaine for cash deal worth $1,487,500 U.S.A tip about the deal came from a confidential informant who told the DEA that Bhopal was looking to buy cocaine from Mexico. The DEA then engaged in a sting in which an agent posed as the cocaine supplier arranging meetings and phonecalls with the suspects through the informant.
"As the negotiations continued, it became apparent that Nguyen was the primary individual attempting to purchase cocaine," Special Agent Trent O'Neill said in his affidavit. "Nguyen indicated he was having difficulty locating his 'accountant' to obtain the money...Nguyen indicated he would be ready with the money for the cocaine transaction on Friday, Sept. 19, 2008."As the DEA watched clandestinely, the four men allegedly packed the money into two separate vehicles and met the agent in the parking lot of a restaurant.
On Oct. 2, a grand jury indicted the two Canadians and their associates with "conspiracy to distribute cocaine" and "attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine."