A Canadian Provincial Court judge is being asked to determine whether the New Brunswick RCMP played a role in fabricating a crime in a human smuggling case, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Three Guyanese convicted of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States, appeared in a Provincial Court in St. Stephen yesterday claiming now to be victims of entrapment by the police, CBC said.
Savita Singh-Murray, a Charlotte County resident, and her brother-in-law Mohamed Yusuf, a Scarborough, Ontario resident, as well as Ravindra Hariprasad, were all found guilty two months ago of conspiring to set up two smuggling jobs, involving three people from Guyana.
CBC said that Singh-Murray was found to have played a key role hatching much of the plot in New Brunswick and communicating that plan to one police informant who was paid CDN$75,000 by the RCMP.
The defence lawyers are arguing that police targetted Singh-Murray improperly and set her up to commit a crime she otherwise would not have committed.
She testified on Tuesday that she was persistently badgered by the informant to talk up a story about smuggling people, so that he would forgive a debt that she owed him.
CBC said that the Crown was expected to argue today that the defendants were willing and able participants in their crime.
The prosecutors will also argue the defendants were the ones who plotted to smuggle a Guyanese woman and a married couple from this country into the United States and that most of the smuggling plot was hatched in New Brunswick.
All three of the defendants are on CDN$10,000 bail each.
