PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Gurlal Singh, 31, an Indian national who has been residing in the U.S. illegally, has been convicted at trial of drug and gun offenses.
The defendant was charged by superseding indictment in September of last year and found guilty by a federal jury of possession with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and possession of a firearm by an alien illegally and unlawfully in the U.S. As detailed in court filings and proven at trial, on August 28, 2024, at approximately 1:17 a.m., Pennsylvania State Police troopers from Hamburg Barracks and Bethel Township Police Department officers responded to the defendant’s Bethel Township, Berks County residence for a report of a shooting incident related to a home invasion. Troopers secured the location, conducted a safety sweep, and located an AK-47 style rifle near the front door, as well as a fired cartridge casing and projectile on the first floor. The same day, investigators obtained and executed a state search and seizure warrant for the residence. A search of the premises revealed a quantity of cocaine, kilogram size wrapping materials, and a black digital scale.
Law enforcement learned that between April 2024 and August 28, 2024, Singh and another person, charged elsewhere, possessed with the intent to distribute 28 kilograms of cocaine. The cocaine was initially stored at Singh’s Bethel residence, which is in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and subsequently moved by the defendant and the other person to an area storage facility located in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. In addition to the AK-47 style rifle that he possessed and discharged in his home, Singh was found to have two shotguns, a pistol, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, which, as an illegal alien and prohibited person, he was not lawfully permitted to possess.
The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on January 7 and faces a maximum possible term of life imprisonment.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Pennsylvania State Police, with assistance from the Bethel Township Police Department and the Berks County District Attorney’s Office, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Rosalynda M. Michetti and Josh Davison.