A trial judge has said Vijay Ganesh Singh and co-defendant John Le were among “the worst group of offenders” after a double murder in 2009 for a shipment of cocaine stolen by a UN gang.

A former Burnaby resident convicted of the murders of two men whose bodies were found in the trunk of a car in Pickering, Ont. in 2009 lost an appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Vijay Ganesh Singh, who once had homes in Burnaby and Toronto, has been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 23 years.

In 2013, an Ontario jury found him and his co-defendant John Le guilty of two counts of second-degree murder and kidnapping.

The charges relate to the murders of Harjinder Singh Sandhu, 29, and Puneet Singh Chhina, 26, who were tied up, shot and stuffed into the trunk of an abandoned car on Rosebank Road in Pickering on May 5, 2009, documents show judicial. Was found .

Singh, who describes himself as a gangster, was an illegal drug importer.

In early 2009, while living in the Lower Mainland, Singh had 35 kilograms of cocaine shipped from Los Angeles to Toronto.

When the shipment arrived in Toronto, it looked like cocaine bundles, but according to court records, they were actually drywall bundles.

The cocaine belonged to a certain “Ahmun” who, according to court records, was the leader of the United Nations gang, and Singh had to recover the shipment of cocaine, or at least find out who stole it.

He suspected Sandhu of being the “jacker” and lured him to his family in Toronto with promises of cheap heroin.

Chhina had just gone for a ride, according to information presented to the court.

Police executed a number of search warrants during the investigation, including at Singh’s home in Burnaby.

Singh and Le were sentenced in February 2014.

The couple appealed their conviction to the Ontario Court of Appeal last May, arguing that the trial judge in the case failed to give proper instructions to the jury.

Le also appealed his conviction, arguing that it was disproportionate given his role in the murder.

On Tuesday, however, the court unanimously dismissed both appeals, ruling that the trial judge had properly instructed the jury and had not disproportionately convicted Le.

“The trial judge conducted background checks on both perpetrators and found that each had lengthy criminal records, little education and little legal employment,” the verdict reads. “He also confirmed the positive reference letters that were submitted in support of each offender. He then addressed the many serious complicating factors in this case. Considering the case as a whole, the trial judge concluded that “these offenses rank among the worst offenses to describe and that Le and Singh belong to the worst group of offenders”.

Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor

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