RCMP accused of entrapment in human smuggling case

A Provincial Court judge is being asked to determine whether the New Brunswick RCMP played a role in manufacturing a crime in a human smuggling case.

Three people convicted of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States, were in a Provincial Court in St. Stephen on Tuesday claiming now to be victims of entrapment by the police.

Savita Singh-Murray, a Charlotte County resident, and her brother-in-law Mohamed Yusuf, a Scarborough, Ont. resident, as well as Ravindra Hariprasad, were all found guilty by the judge two months ago of conspiring to set up two smuggling jobs, involving three people from Guyana.

Singh-Murray was found to play a key role hatching much of the plot in New Brunswick and communicating that plan to one police informant, named Lloyd Laking, who was paid $75,000 by the RCMP.

The defence lawyers are arguing that police targetted Singh-Murray unfairly and set her up to commit a crime she otherwise would not have committed.

She testified on Tuesday that she was persistently badgered by Laking to talk up a story about smuggling people, so that he would forgive a debt that she owed him.

If Provincial Court Judge William McCarroll is persuaded by that argument, there will be a stay of proceedings in the human smuggling case.

The Crown is expected to argue on Wednesday that the defendants were willing and able participants in their crime.

Further, the prosecutors will argue the defendants were the ones who plotted to smuggle a Guyanese woman and a married couple from Guyana into the United States and that most of the smuggling plot was hatched in New Brunswick.

All three of the defendants have been free on $10,000 bail each.