Man caught with 8 kilos of cocaine gets five years

The Bell Centre seems to be a familiar setting for Jonathan Beaudin Naudi. A decade ago, he took part in a hockey riot outside the complex. When he was arrested months ago as part of a Montreal police investigation into cocaine trafficking, he was residing in a condominium there.

Beaudin Naudi appeared before Quebec Court Judge Denis Mondor at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday and admitted that he was the person who possessed eight kilograms of cocaine seized when the police made arrests last year after having monitored the comings and goings at two residences in Montreal — one on Notre-Dame St. W and the other on du Séminaire St. — for nine days.

As part of the hearing, Mondor also ordered that more than $466,000 in cash that was seized as part of the same investigation be confiscated, following a request by prosecutor Jonathan Roy.

Mondor also agreed with a joint recommendation, made by Roy and defence lawyer Gilbert Frigon, that Beaudin Naudi be sentenced to the equivalent of a five-year prison term.

In 2008, Beaudin Naudi was part of a group of people who rioted near the Bell Centre after the Montreal Canadiens eliminated the Boston Bruins in the playoffs.

Fifteen Montreal police cars were damaged in the riots and Beaudin Naudi was part of a small group of people who were later sued by the city. He admitted that he had smashed the headlights on one of the cars. In 2014, a judge ordered that he pay $3,000 for the damages.

According to the charge sheet filed in the cocaine-trafficking case, Beaudin Naudi lists his address as being in one of the high condominium towers the Canadiens organization recently built next to the Bell Centre.

Beaudin Naudi was arrested in 2017 with one of his relatives, Eric Naudi, 38, a man who has ties to Montreal street gangs. When Montreal police sought to close the Temptation strip club on SteCatherine St. W. in 2010, Naudi’s name was mentioned often during a hearing before the Régie des alcools. Montreal police described him as a close associate of Richard Goodridge, an alleged street gang leader who police suspected was the real owner of the strip club. Naudi and Goodridge were arrested together, in 2008, and were charged with armed robbery. They were ultimately acquitted on almost all of the charges they faced, but Naudi pleaded guilty to being in possession of a loaded and prohibited firearm when the pair were arrested.

On Thursday, Naudi pleaded guilty to being in possession of a small quantity of crack cocaine when he was arrested with Beaudin Naudi. Naudi is scheduled to be sentenced in September.