The Bell 214-ST is a medium-lift twin engine helicopter. There's enough room for 16 passengers. The Sandhers own 2, 80s era US registered Bell 214-ST aircraft. Its a helicopter usually used to rappel drop fire fighting crews, or perform military operations. It would not be suitable for blowing water off cherries. It would be very suitable for cross border drug smuggling.
There had been a lot of wildfires during the summer of 2018, and the air was smoky, with limited visibility. The smoke would have provided good cover for running drugs across the border. On August 28, 2018 the third incursion of an aircraft entering US airspace without a transponder was detected by the Mica Peak Radar Site, after incidents on August 9th, and August 19th. Cherry season was well past.
 | Sandher helicopters flew behind Black Mountain and turned off their transponders once they left the controlled/restricted class D airspace surrounding Kelowna Airport at 10:20 PDT on August 28, 2018. A ping off the Carmi cell tower near Beaverdell. A ping off the Rock Creek cell phone tower, a call originating from the Rock Creek cell tower placed to a Verizon subscriber near Republic, Washington state all come from a phone belonging to Gurtaj Sandher. |
 | The Mica Peak Radar site near Fairchild AFB detected an unidentified aircraft entering US airspace above Chesaw, Wa. 30 minutes later the helicopter was traveling eastward, then disappeared from radar. 50 minutes later it reappeared between Kloof Ridge and Goat Peak. The military grade radar at Mica Peak can detect aircraft over 290 miles away. |
The two helicopter trick is to let the radar operators believe the aircraft entered, and promptly exited US airspace, delaying a possible interception, while the helicopter on the ground is unloading/loading illicit cargo. The landing took place at 12:50 PDT, and the first helicopter re-entered Canadian airspace at 13:15 PDT, and the other at 13:45 PDT. US Customs and Border Patrol notified Midway RCMP, Kelowna RCMP, and Canada Border Services Agency of the suspicious flights.
 | At 15:00 PDT the first helicopter, the decoy, landed on a Sandher property near the airport. Three phone calls were placed: at 08:05:32 PDT, a call was placed to Brothers Keeper gangster Amandeep Singh Kang from Swainson Road. Another call was placed at 12:14:51 PDT to Carlos Raygozaparedes, a Sinaloa Cartel operative, who held the title of janitor at Saagar Fine Cuisine of India in Newport Beach. Raygozaparedes was busted in Southern California in 2021 with 821 pounds of meth, 190 pounds of cocaine and 20.5 pounds of fentanyl. That's enough fentanyl to kill 4.7m people. |
 | A second call was placed to Kang. Amandeep Singh Kang, 31, pleaded guilty in November 2023 to trafficking in controlled substances for the benefit of a criminal organization and conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The career gangster was a senior member of the Brothers Keepers and an alpha level drug importer. |
At 10:20 PDT, a transponder signal was picked up just east of Beaverdell. The aircraft was travelling north towards Big White. At 11:05 PDT, cops meet the helicopter at roughly the same location the other had landed, Prabtaj Sandher had come to pick up Gurtaj Sandher and the pilot after unloading cargo.
 | Both pilots were Mexicans who had converted their licenses to fly in Canada, and were brought to work for the Sandher crime family under the Agricultural Stream Program. Sandher's helicopters are registered in the US in the name of Nevada company, GP Sandher Holdings. Sandher Family Trust operates the craft in Canada by abusing a 30 day regulatory window. |
