DETROIT – Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized over $4 million worth of cocaine from a driver that tried to smuggle the drugs across the Ambassador Bridge on Tuesday.
According to court documents, the investigation began on April 15 after members of the Detroit Contraband Enforcement Team randomly selected Inwinderjit Singh Gill, an Indian citizen and permanent resident of Canada, for an inspection.
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Previous coverage: Customs seizes more than 330 pounds of cocaine at Ambassador Bridge
On April 14, 2025, Gill entered the United States from Port Huron’s Blue Water Bridge, hauling shingles that were picked up from a business in Quebec, Canada, to a business in Shelby, Ohio.
During the outbound inspection on April 15 at the Ambassador Bridge, Gill told CBP officers he picked up shingles from an Ohio business and was transporting them to a business in Quebec, Canada.
An officer told Gill to exit the truck while they did a more extensive search. A CBP officer inspected the truck through the door between the truck and trailer to look at the pallets extending wall to wall.
The CBP officer inspecting the truck climbed to the top and saw two large duffel bags in the middle of the trailer, along with two tan boxes. She opened one of the black duffel bags and found black duct-taped bricks.
When the CBP officer told the Detroit Contraband Enforcement Team, Gill reportedly began to back away, showing signs of deception and nervousness. He was placed into handcuffs.
CBP officers took Gill’s phone; one was in his right jacket pocket, and the other was next to his driver’s seat.
According to court documents, the large-scale X-ray examination of the truck did not show an anomaly where the duffel bags and boxes were placed due to the truck’s high density.
One of the duffel bags contained 13 bricks, and the second had 16 bricks.
The first box had 16 bricks, the second box had 12 bricks, the third box had 15 bricks and the fourth box had 13 bricks.
The bricks were all labeled in different types of imprints, CBP officers said, including a Mitsubishi emblem, a sun emblem and a Bose emblem, along with three with a sticker saying “5 ultimos.”
A brick from each duffel bag and box tested positive for cocaine.
Gill faces a federal charge of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
There was a total of 85 bricks of cocaine seized by CBP officers, with an estimated value of about $4.65 million and weighed nearly 350 pounds altogether.
When officers interviewed Gill, he said he had been a truck driver for ten years, making routine international crossings during his tenure.
Law enforcement databases revealed that the truck was registered under Gill, and the trailer’s registration plate was registered to the same address as his home address.
