Two South Asian YVR airport screeners go on trial for smuggling ecstasy

The trial for two former security screeners accused of helping to smuggle drugs through the Vancouver airport began in B.C. provincial court on Thursday.

Ajitpal Singh Judge and Gurvinder Singh Pahl were arrested in 2011 and charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, possession for the purpose of exporting, and breach of trust by a public officer.

The pair worked for a security company contracted by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and allegedly helped a man named Dylan Green smuggle 15 kilograms of ecstasy through the airport.

Police say Green was stopped in May 2011 by Canada Border Services Agency officers in the post-security section of U.S. departures. They say he admitted he was carrying drugs in his backpack.

Green entered a guilty plea in court on Thursday.

The Crown said Ajitpal Singh Judge admitted to them on video he took drugs through airport security and handed them to a man in an airport washroom.

But Judge’s defence lawyer, Matthew Nathanson, told the court his client claims police did not properly give him access to a lawyer, went to his home without a warrant and suggested he was linked to terrorism.

“I’ll have some pointed submissions as to the actions of the police in this case and whether they crossed the line,” Nathanson said. “We take the position that they absolutely did cross the line.”

The trial is set to resume on Sept. 10.