A former Montreal music promoter had methamphetamines smuggled into Laval from the United States to pay a cocaine debt to an Olympic snowboarder-turned-drug kingpin who threatened to kill his mother, U.S. authorities say.
U.S. federal prosecutors say Nahim Jorge Bonilla was part of a drug-smuggling operation led by former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan James Wedding that trafficked hundreds of kilograms of Colombian cocaine into Canada through Mexico and California.
The allegations against Bonilla — among 15 others, including Wedding and eight other Canadians — are contained in an indictment filed in a U.S. federal court in California.
Wedding, who competed for Team Canada in the 2002 Olympics, is accused of “leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” Martin Estrada, a U.S. attorney, said when the indictment was unsealed in October.
Bonilla, 36, was arrested at his Miami-area home the day the indictment was unsealed.
The court document alleges that Bonilla arranged to obtain and planned to distribute 12 kilograms of cocaine from Wedding and his second-in-command, Andrew Clark, a Canadian recently arrested in Mexico. At least some of those 12 kilos were brought to Montreal.
Prosecutors say Bonilla paid Wedding and Clark upfront for seven kilograms of cocaine and was expected to pay for the rest after they were sold.
But Bonilla didn’t pay for the other five kilograms of cocaine in time, according to U.S. authorities, who obtained direct messages exchanged between members of the drug ring through a messaging app called Threema.
That’s when Wedding began to threaten Bonilla.
“On June 14, 2024, via Threema, using coded language, defendant Wedding told defendant Bonilla that he would kill his mother,” according to the indictment.
That same day, Bonilla is alleged to have told another member of Wedding and Clark’s drug trafficking organization — who was actually an informant — about the deal and the threat.
Wedding then sent a message to the same informant saying that “Bonilla had until June 17, 2024, to pay him for the five kilograms of cocaine.”
Messages sent through the app show Bonilla then paid US$17,300 worth of cryptocurrency for two kilograms of cocaine and arranged to have 20 kilograms of methamphetamines smuggled to Montreal, where it would be given to Wedding and Clark’s organization, to pay for the other three.
That smuggling operation was planned in a group chat called “20 wins mtl,” the indictment alleges. On June 20, the shipment of meth was dropped off by an unnamed “co-conspirator” in Laval, according to prosecutors who say pictures of the drugs were sent through the messaging app.
Bonilla, who remains detained, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession with the intent to distribute.
Bonilla and his mother moved to Montreal from Mexico City when he was 10, according to an online biography. He ran a company that promoted Latin music events in the Montreal area and was described as a bar owner in media reports.
He appears to have left after he was the target of a series of violent crimes.
In June 2019, a man who had recently begun renting a St-Eustache home from Bonilla’s mother, where Bonilla had lived until shortly before it was rented, was shot and wounded as he returned home.
The judge who presided at the shooter’s trial concluded that the case was one of mistaken identity, citing the fact that police found photos and video of Bonilla on the getaway driver’s phone; the fact that five luxury vehicles were burned outside the home in October 2018; and that in early 2021, after Bonilla had moved to Laval, three vehicles in front of his new home were burned.
A few weeks later, someone broke into that Laval home and started a fire that destroyed the residence.
“All these fires were of a criminal nature,” Justice Hélène Di Salvo wrote. “Mr. Bonilla did not collaborate with the police.”
Bonilla has a long criminal record, including drug crimes, break and enter and assault, Di Salvo wrote, adding that he is barred from possessing firearms.
Bonilla is listed as the owner of a condo near Montreal’s Place des Arts, according to tax records, which was recently put up for sale. In June, he went before Quebec’s Tribunal administratif du logement seeking unpaid rent from a former tenant.
In Florida, Bonilla opened a Miami Beach supper club and runs a record label, Ruido Callejero Music. According to reports, he purchased the home where he was arrested from record producer DJ Khaled. A photo of the two of them together at Bonilla’s restaurant appears on Bonilla’s Instagram account.
He is scheduled to stand trial in May.
Wedding, 43, who has been sought for nearly a decade in two Montreal drug-smuggling cases, remains on the run. U.S. authorities say he has been linked to at least three murders in Canada and that nearly 2,000 kilograms of cocaine were seized as part of the operation against his drug ring.