Accused B.C. drug smuggler wins appeal against extradition to the U.S.

The B.C. Court of Appeal has stopped the extradition of a Metro Vancouver man facing drug charges in the U.S.

Tenny Guon Lim was named as an alleged international drug smuggler and charged in California. Last year, the B.C. Supreme Court ordered his extradition to face those charges. The federal Justice Minister later agreed he should be sent to the U.S. for trial.

But on Tuesday, B.C.’s highest court overturned that decision in a precedent-setting ruling.

Appeal Court Justice Karen Horsman said that Justice Jeanne Watchuk erred when she ruled that Lim did not have the right to challenge the constitutionality of his 2014 interview with the RCMP after an arrest in an unrelated drug case.

The Canadian interview was critical in the U.S. case, as it was used to identify Lim as the suspect captured on a recorded 2018 phone call.