Federal Crown drops charges against Calgary couple caught with nearly 8 kilograms of fentanyl on Saskatchewan highway

RCMP narcotics seizure image.

SWIFT CURRENT — The Federal Crown has stayed all charges against two Calgary residents who were arrested last year after nearly 8 kilograms — roughly 17.5 pounds — of fentanyl were found hidden in their vehicle during a traffic stop on the Trans-Canada Highway in Saskatchewan.

Swati Narula, 27, and Kunwardeep Singh, 29, each faced one count of trafficking a controlled substance and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking. The Public Prosecution Service of Canada entered written stays of proceedings against Narula on February 24 and against Singh on February 27, Swift Current Online reported Monday.

There was no explanation for why the narco-suspects walked free, beyond the standard policy language the prosecution service has cited in a number of similar cases documented by The Bureau — that prosecutors must continually assess “a reasonable prospect of conviction and whether the public interest supports continuing the prosecution.”

On January 28, 2025, officers from the Saskatchewan Highway Patrol were conducting proactive patrols along the Trans-Canada when they stopped a vehicle with two adults near Swift Current, a prairie city of roughly 17,000 people that serves as the regional hub of southwestern Saskatchewan, positioned at the junction of the Trans-Canada less than 160 kilometers from the American border. A search of the vehicle uncovered the fentanyl hidden under the spare tire. Investigators noted the pair said they were travelling to Regina.

RCMP Superintendent Grant St. Germaine, officer in charge of Saskatchewan RCMP Traffic Services, called it a significant seizure. “Keep in mind that only a few grains of fentanyl is enough to potentially cause a fatal overdose,” he said in a statement the following day. “We have prevented potentially millions of doses of this dangerous drug from entering our communities. I hope this is a message to others who choose to transport illicit goods in our province. Our officers are watching out for you.”

The two appeared in Swift Current Provincial Court on January 29, 2025. Singh was granted bail on February 20 on a $25,000 bond. Narula was granted bail on March 4 on a $10,000 cash bond, with conditions that included surrendering her passports to immigration authorities, observing a nightly curfew, and remaining within 100 kilometers of her sister’s Calgary residence. At a subsequent hearing, Singh’s bail conditions were loosened at his lawyer’s request to allow him to resume work as a truck driver in the Calgary area.

The case moved through a series of adjournments across 2025. The final delay came at Singh’s lawyer’s request after a defense witness was unavailable for the preliminary inquiry, pushing the next court date to March 2, 2026. It never reached that hearing.

The Calgary-to-Saskatchewan fentanyl corridor evident in the case bears resemblance to a separate interprovincial network dismantled by Ontario Provincial Police last week.

In that investigation, dubbed Project Ollie, the OPP’s Border Drug Interdiction Task Force identified an alleged network trafficking fentanyl between the Greater Toronto Area and Calgary, the OPP reported. A search warrant executed February 10 at a Brampton residence yielded 18 kilograms of suspected fentanyl — equivalent, police said, to roughly 180,000 potentially lethal doses. Three individuals were arrested: Navjot Singh, 20, of Brampton; Attarvir Singh, 23, of Calgary, arrested in Winnipeg on a Canada-wide warrant; and Balwinder Singh, 21, of Calgary. A fourth suspect, Manpreet Singh, 21, of Calgary, remains at large on a Canada-wide warrant.

As The Bureau has previously reported, the pattern of federal charges being stayed in major fentanyl and narcotics cases is not new. In a British Columbia case, federal prosecutors stayed 12 counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking against a Richmond fentanyl network defendant on the fourth day of trial in B.C. Supreme Court — after a “comprehensive and exhaustive investigation” by the Organized Crime Unit, three overdose victims, and kilograms of fentanyl-laced heroin. The prosecution service offered a statement then that is word-for-word identical to the one it issued in the Swift Current case: the standard for prosecution, it said, had ceased to be met. No further explanation was provided in either case.

The Bureau has also reported on two marquee cases — Project Brisa in Ontario and Project Cobra in Alberta — where record-breaking seizures and triumphant press conferences collapsed in court.

In Brisa, Toronto Police described the investigation as the largest drug seizure in the service’s history, centered on tractor-trailers with sophisticated hydraulic traps moving cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexico through California into Canada. Crown prosecutors stayed all 182 charges by 2023, offering little public explanation.

In Cobra, federal Crown prosecutors terminated the prosecution of five alleged leaders of a cross-border methamphetamine trafficking operation for Mexican cartels — Alberta’s largest drug case at the time, involving the seizure of nearly one metric tonne of methamphetamine — one day before defence lawyers were set to argue for dismissal. Four co-accused also had their cases stayed.

The Bureau, drawing on interviews with Canadian and American law enforcement and national security experts conducted over three years, has reported that investigators believe Indo-Canadian organized crime networks — which have gained significant control of Canada’s long-haul trucking industry — have become a major factor in both cross-border and interprovincial narcotics trafficking in Canada.