Man with no state faces weapons, drug charges
Operation in three communities yields dozens of charges against seven suspects
An Ottawa-born but officially stateless man is one of seven people charged in a region-wide bust that netted assault rifles, cocaine, methamphetamine and pot, plus more than $150,000 in cash.
Deepan Budlakoti, 28, faces the most charges in the operation called Project Landslide: a total of 83 counts of gun trafficking, possessing the proceeds of crime and breaching a gun ban.
The results of the investigation by the OPP’s organized crime enforcement bureau and Ottawa and Gatineau police were announced Wednesday.
The most disturbing find was an AK-47 assault rifle purchased by an undercover officer in Ottawa the day before thousands of people gathered in the city for Canada Day, said OPP Chief Supt. John Sullivan.
“Thankfully, it was the police that was purchasing this,” Sullivan said, holding the weapon, which was seized with high-capacity magazines, adding that the idea of such weapons in the hands of criminals who use them for “violence, intimidation and death” costs him sleep.
The high-powered rifles seized are “capable of inflicting death or serious injuries on a large number of people” while handguns are linked to gang activity in Ottawa, he said.
The seven-month probe aimed at high-level drug and gun trafficking began in May and targeted separate operations in Ottawa, Gatineau and Clarence-Rockland, about 40 kilometres east of Ottawa.
Police executed eight search warrants Monday: half a dozen in Clarence-Rockland — including one that emptied a shipping container packed with drugs — one in Gatineau and one at Budlakoti’s west-end Ottawa home.
The guns, drugs and wads of cash they seized covered a long table at the Kanata OPP detachment.
The guns seized included an AR-15 assault rifle, an SKS semiautomatic rifle with a bayonet, an Uzi submachine-gun, half a dozen handguns and ammunition.
The drugs included 156,000 methamphetamine pills packed into pillow-sized clear plastic bags. Other items seized included a studded wooden club, a swastikaemblazoned butterfly knife and brass knuckles.
Police also have vast amounts of documentary evidence to trace and technology to unlock, Sullivan said.
“We keep going on this investigation — it’s never over,” he said, adding that police are trying to trace the guns with the help of the American Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“There are a lot of leads and still a lot of work to do.”
Supt. Chris Renwick of Ottawa police said the firearms will be tested to see if they can be linked to other crimes, and that it’s a step toward a safer city to get those guns, which are typically either smuggled from the United States or diverted from legal owners in Canada, off the streets.
“There is that dual track,” Renwick said. “They have to be taken out of the hands of criminals.”
Marco Dubien, 27, of Gatineau faces 37 charges, including trafficking firearms, cocaine and marijuana — more than three kilograms of the latter — and possession of the proceeds of crime.
The five remaining people charged live in Clarence-Rockland, east of Ottawa.
Youssef Jouma, 38, is charged with possession of the proceeds of crime and possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
Nicklas Martin, 23, is charged with possession of property obtained by crime and possession of cocaine and methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking.
Matt Mercier, 29, and Leopold Mercier, 64, are jointly charged with conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine and cocaine and possession of property obtained by crime.
Leopold Mercier and Marianne Mercier, 62, are jointly charged with unlawful possession of handguns — a total of 15 counts — and possession of the proceeds of crime.
All three Merciers are jointly charged with trafficking methamphetamine. Matt Mercier is separately charged with trafficking methamphetamine and cocaine, possession of the proceeds of crime and breach of recognizance.
Budlakoti remains in custody. He had been scheduled to appear Tuesday night at a fundraiser for Justice For Deepan, the group backing his legal fight for citizenship, at the University of Ottawa.
Budlakoti was born in Ottawa but has no citizenship from any country.
After drug and firearm convictions in 2010, the government argued he wasn’t a Canadian citizen because he was born to foreign nationals who worked at the Indian High Commission and that his crimes were serious enough to warrant deportation to India, although he’s never been there.
The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his case last year after lower courts denied his pleas for citizenship. He’s now taken his case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.