Peck and Company lawyers, Garen Arnet-Zargarian and Casandra Tam, secured an acquittal for their client on drug importation charges. The client was stopped at the Canada-U.S. Border with 13 kilograms of heroin in a suitcase in the trunk of his vehicle. At trial at the BC Supreme Court in New Westminster, Arnet-Zargarian and Tam argued that their client had no knowledge of the drugs or the fact that the suitcase was in the vehicle.
The trial judge found that the cross-examinations of the Border Service Officers “significantly diminished” the reliability of their testimony that the client’s responses or behaviour were suspicious. The client testified and explained that he did not know about the suitcase in his trunk. The judge found it plausible that another person who he had met in the States had put the suitcase in his trunk without his knowledge. The judge acquitted him on that basis.