BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- On Thursday, two Bakersfield men and Gurmeet Bisla, 29, of Livingston, were found guilty of conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute a large quantity of cocaine.

Harjeet Mann, 50, a Canadian national and resident of Bakersfield and Sukhraj Dhaliwal, 39, were convicted of attempting to possess with intent to distribute 70 kilograms of cocaine following their delivery of approximately $843,000 in cash to an undercover narcotics agent, the Department of Justice reported.

Immediately following the jury verdicts, Senior United States District Judge Oliver W. Wanger found that $1,011,068 in seized U.S. currency represented proceeds or money used to facilitate drug trafficking and ordered its forfeiture, the DOJ reported.

In addition, $52,669 seized from Mann’s bank accounts was previously forfeited administratively by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the DOJ reported.

According to Assistant United States Attorneys Karen A. Escobar and Deanna Martinez, from 1994 to 2008, Mann was the leader of a cocaine smuggling operation that transported large quantities of cocaine in tractor-trailers to Canada for distribution to Asian gang members in the Toronto area.

Bisla a drug transporter for Mann, was stopped in Sheldon, Ill., while carrying $169,910 in drug proceeds in a tractor-trailer, which he took without permission from NAV Trucking, a small trucking company in Livingston, according to U.S. attorneys Escobar and Martinez.

According to the DOJ, the investigation culminated with the seizure of approximately $843,000 in U.S. currency that Mann, his money courier, Dhaliwal, and, Jasdev Singh, 34, of Bakersfield, delivered to an undercover agent who had negotiated for the purchase of 70 kilograms of cocaine.

Singh entered a guilty plea to the drug conspiracy before the start of trial, the DOJ reported.

During negotiations between Mann, Singh, and the undercover agent, Mann indicated that during the past five years he had shipped approximately 36,000 kilograms of cocaine from Bakersfield to Canada.

In Canada, Mann’s customers “cut” the product for street sales where Mann claimed, “I’m the biggest there is.”

According to U.S. attorneys, Mann also offered to sell the undercover agent 50 kilogram buckets of ephedrine (a precursor chemical used to manufacture methamphetamine) for $33,000 a bucket and told the undercover agent he smuggled the ephedrine into the United States from his native country of India.

The case has received extensive coverage in the Asian and Canadian press, which reported that Mann and Singh, natives of the Punjabi village of Gureh, and Dhaliwal, from the neighboring village of Chimna, are considered modern day Robin Hoods in their villages stemming from their philanthropy.

Dhaliwal admitted at trial that he gives large sums of money to the villagers of Chimna, notwithstanding the lack of any employment history for him in the United States, where he has resided since the early 1990's.

Mann, Dhaliwal and Bisla are scheduled to appear for sentencing before District Judge Wanger on Sept. 14.

Singh is scheduled to appear for sentencing on August 24.

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