A trio of Canadians have been arrested separately in the U.S. and overseas in a wide-array of crimes from child pornography to drug running.
Matthew Norman Ballek, 32, of Saskatchewan, who was employed by the World Bank in Washington, has pleaded guilty to a federal child pornography charge.
He faces upwards of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Ballek was held without bail as he is considered a flight risk because he is a Canadian citizen on a U.S. work visa.
He worked as a financial risk specialist for the World Bank. Previously, he worked for the Bank of Canada as a senior financial specialist and was program manager in LGBT capital markets to “empower LGBT+ talent.”
Cops say that he was pinched in January when an agent with the FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force was monitoring an online dating app. The feds discovered that pedophiles sometimes used the app.
Ballek reached out to the undercover cop in the belief he was communicating with a pedophile and expressed his interest in child pornography. To illustrate his sincerity, he sent the agent three video files showing adult men raping toddlers and prepubescent boys.
He will be required to register as a sex offender and will be deported after his prison sentence, which he will learn on March 25, 2025.
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A Newmarket man who pleaded guilty to scheming to buy 50 firearms from an Atlanta gun broker for $40,000 with the intension of smuggling the weapons into Canada for sale on Canadian streets has been sentenced.
According to the United States’ Attorney’s Office, Sourivahn Phonthepsone, 24, didn’t realize he was being watched by ATF agents as he communicated with the seller in Georgia. Phonthepsone asked for a quote on pricing and offered to travel to the U.S.
In September 2023, he flew from Toronto to Dallas where he met with the source and an undercover federal agent and talked types of guns and prices. “Phonthepsone indicated that his associates would transport 20 firearms into Canada at a time. He agreed to pay $800 per firearm and estimated they would resell for approximately $2,000 each in Canada.”
On Oct. 6, 2023, Phonthepsone flew from Toronto to Atlanta and met the undercover agent at a storage unit in Fairburn, Georgia, where he gave the agent $40,000 in cash for the guns. After he initiated the transfer for some of the 50 firearms, ATF special agents arrested him without incident.
He was convicted of the firearms trafficking conspiracy charge on April 29.
In a release Thursday, officials said he was sentenced to seven years and three months in a federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.
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Ontario woman Adrienne Munju, 41, was arrested at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, accused of importing 35.2 kilos of synthetic cannabis, popularly known as “Canadian Lud.” Local media reports say she was arrested Thursday when officials allegedly discovered 74 parcels of the illicit substance in her bags.
The reports say she claimed she was recruited to traffic the illicit drugs to Nigeria by an online platform. She was to be paid $10,000 upon successful delivery in Lagos. Munju reportedly told officials she needed to pay for her master’s degree program.
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Meanwhile, an unnamed Canadian man was arrested in Brisbane for allegedly attempting to import 5 kilos of methamphetamine into Australia concealed in his luggage. He was nabbed on Sept. 15 after his flight landed from Vancouver.
Packages of meth were allegedly hidden in the lining of two backpacks that were stored in a suitcase, as well as in the lining of the suitcase itself. Testing of the substance returned a positive result for meth.
The Australian Federal Police charged the man with one count of importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. The drugs had a street value of $5 million.
“Methamphetamine is linked to further criminal activity such as drug dealing, property crime and violence,” Acting Commander Kinghorn said. “The AFP and its Australian partners are relentless in pursuing those who try to bring illegal drugs into this country.”
@HunterTOSun