Canadian couple Swati Narula and Kunwardeep Singh walk free after 8kg fentanyl bust; charges stayed due to 'lack of public interest'

On January 28, 2025, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers stopped a vehicle on Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada Highway) in Saskatchewan and discovered around eight kilograms of fentanyl concealed beneath the spare tyre.

“Two Calgary residents were arrested after police found nearly eight kilograms of fentanyl hidden in their vehicle during a traffic stop on a highway in Saskatchewan (Canadian province)”

The Times of India

The two occupants were detained and identified as 27-year-old Swati Narula and 29-year-old Kunwardeep Singh, both residents of Calgary, Alberta; authorities said the pair told investigators they were travelling to Regina.

The Times of India

Both were each charged with one count of trafficking a controlled substance and one count of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking and appeared in Swift Current Provincial Court on January 29, 2025.

Kunwardeep Singh was released on bail on February 20, 2025, with a $25,000 bond.

Swati Narula was reported released on March 4, 2025, on a $10,000 cash bond with conditions to give up her passport, follow a nightly curfew, and stay within 100 km of her sister's home in Calgary.

The Times of India

The article states Singh's bail conditions were later loosened to allow him to resume work as a truck driver in Calgary.

All charges against the two were stayed — Narula on February 24 and Singh on February 27.

“Two Calgary residents were arrested after police found nearly eight kilograms of fentanyl hidden in their vehicle during a traffic stop on a highway in Saskatchewan (Canadian province)”

The Times of India

The piece explains that in Canada stayed charges can be restarted within one year but otherwise the case ends.

It also explains that a stay means the Crown has decided there is little chance of conviction or that continuing the case is not in the public interest, a point the headline framed as a 'lack of public interest'.

Police described the seizure as significant because of fentanyl’s extreme potency.

RCMP Superintendent Grant St. Germaine said even a few grains of fentanyl can potentially cause a fatal overdose and that the seizure prevented 'potentially millions of doses'.

The article contains an unclear chronology: it reports Narula’s charges were stayed on February 24 yet also reports she was released on March 4, 2025, a sequence the article does not explain.