Trial set in White Rock drug seizure – Surrey Now-Leader

A man charged in connection with the seizure last May in White Rock of cocaine and fentanyl is set to go to trial on the matter early next year.

According to online court records, voir dire proceedings – a trial within a trial, often held to determine the admissibility of evidence – in the case against Navjot Cheema are to get underway Dec. 3, with the trial proper to begin on Feb. 3, 2020.

Five days were scheduled for the voir dire, and another five for the trial, during an appearance Tuesday (April 9) in Surrey Provincial Court.

Officials with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada told Peace Arch News earlier this year that two charges had been sworn against Cheema on Jan. 16 – one for the possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and another for possession of fentanyl and a derivative of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking – in connection with a May 20, 2018 incident in the 800-block of Stayte Road.

On that day, officers arrested a 31-year-old man and seized nearly a kilogram of cocaine as well as “17 street doses” of fentanyl, while responding to a report of a break-and-enter.