Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
A Toronto police officer caught with drugs after being pursued by Peel police was sentenced to four years in prison this week.
Ontario Court Justice Joseph Callaghan sentenced Toronto police officer Brian Sukhram in Toronto on Tuesday.
Sukhram, himself a drug squad officer, pleaded guilty in June to possession of cocaine and methamphetamine, breach of trust and obstructing justice.
According to two separate agreed statements of facts, Sukhram took part in carrying out a search warrant at the apartment of an alleged drug dealer on Jarvis Street in Toronto on July 2, 2024.
Sukhram and six other officers were involved in the operation. The alleged dealer had been arrested earlier that day after selling drugs to police.
Various quantities of GHB, ecstasy, crystal meth, cocaine, methamphetamine tablets, Xanax, Adderall Pink and ketamine were seized from a safe in the living room.
The officers returned to the police’s drug squad building and worked overtime to process the drugs. Sukhram left at about 1:25 a.m. in plainclothes with a black backpack.
According to one of the agreed statement of facts, Sukhram consumed alcohol while at the drug squad office. He left to get pizza for the team and drank more alcohol upon his return.
Brian Sukhram has been suspended without pay. (Charles Contant/Radio-Canada)
After he left the parking lot, he was involved in a collision at a road construction site about 800 metres away, damaging the equipment and his car. He fled, then drove to Peel Region.
An ambulance driver in Peel Region noticed that Sukhram’s driving was erratic and alerted police, who tried to stop him but he drove away.
He ended up driving the wrong way for a time and through two red lights. Officers finally boxed him in after he hit two police cars and slightly injured some of the officers.
He was arrested by Peel Regional Police shortly after 2 a.m. and later charged with a number of offences, including impaired driving.
Inside the backpack, Peel police found quantities of methamphetamine in a sealed, plastic Toronto Police Service evidence bag along with crack cocaine, among other things.
Sukhram turned to alcohol due to ‘stress of the job’
The TPS professional standards unit began investigating Sukhram after his arrest and charges. In January 2025, the service asked the OPP to take over.
The OPP determined that Sukhram was not on duty at the time of his arrest and had no lawful reason to be in possession of the substances.
Because of his arrest and charges, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada stayed the prosecution against the alleged dealer.
One of the agreed statement of facts says while Sukhram was a member of the drug squad for more than five years, he acted as an undercover officer on more than 100 occasions, buying drugs from drug dealers, many of whom were armed.
“He turned to alcohol to deal with the stress of the job,” it reads.
Sukhram was suspended without pay. The agreed statement of facts says he has been diagnosed with complex PTSD and substance use disorder (alcohol) and is receiving counselling from a psychologist.