The trial two Abbotsford men accused of trying to smuggle $1.2 million worth of cocaine across the U.S. border wrapped up in Chilliwack Supreme Court recently.

Randeep Singh Match and Manindervir Singh Virk are each charged with one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The two men were arrested Sept. 14, 2009 after U.S. border patrol motion-detection cameras spotted three people crossing into the United States, then quickly backtracking into Canada in a heavily wooded and unmanned section near the Sumas border crossing.

Match and Virk were nabbed around 10: 45 p.m. in a co-ordinated bust involving Abbotsford Police, K-9 units, U.S. Border Patrol Services, and the RCMP .

APD officers discovered four duffel bags stuffed with 41 kilograms of cocaine and police dog named Diego tracked down Match and Virk who were hiding in a stand of berry bushes some distance away.

The RCMP helicopter was able to follow the pair using an infrared camera system, which helped to facilitate their capture.

In final submissions before Justice Brian Joyce last Thursday, Crown counsel Sharon Steele stated evidence in the case was circumstantial but the only reasonable and rationale inference to be drawn was the two accused were guilty of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

"The accused were running through the pitch black berry field in the middle of the night. The only explanation is illicit behaviour. There is no benign explanation," she said.

The fact the two men fled from the police dog and helicopter was due to a "clear consciousness of guilt."

"If they had merely been out on a late night stroll on a dark road, there is no reason they should be running from police."

Additionally, the duffel bags of cocaine were located on the same "track" as the men because the accused dropped the bags, she asserted.

"It's a vast agricultural area. It's impossible that they happened to run across the acres of blueberry fields exactly where the cocaine was found."

The accused had offered no legitimate explanation to account for their presence in the fields at that time of night, she noted.

Virk's defence counsel Gordon Dykstra noted that the facts in the case might raise suspicion but no clear inference of guilt.

His clients may have passed by or come in contact with the suspect bags while in the fields but it did not mean they were in possession of the articles or knew what was inside.

The police dog handler and police dog did come across one of the duffel bags of coke while tracking the suspects, said Dykstra. However, it was impossible to determine that the dog's aggressive reaction to the bags was as a result of smelling his human track or because he'd located the drugs, he said.

Jeffrey Ray, Virk's lawyer, noted the RCMP officer piloting the helicopter that tracked the suspects with an infrared imaging camera was not able to tell if the people he was following were carrying bags, nor could he see the bags on the ground.

He also pointed to the lack of forensic evidence on the bricks of cocaine and noted neither suspect was arrested with gloves.

Following submissions, Joyce decided to reserve making a decision until Nov. 24.

RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com