Murder task force busts alleged fentanyl ring
A task force investigating unsolved murders has busted an alleged fentanyl trafficking ring while in pursuit of gangland killers, the Citizen has learned.
The charges are the latest in ramped up efforts by local police to curb the distribution and sale of the deadly drug on city streets.
Police allege one-time leader of the Vanier Bloods and high-profile drug dealer Adnan “Ace” Fazeli, 32, is the ringleader of what detectives have now called “The Fazeli Group.”
On April 19, police arrested seven members of the group — Fazeli, Braedon William Guy, 18, Tyler Daniel Labrecque, 26, Amanda Kebede Mengesha, 22, Patrick Thibault, 33, Mathieu Vaillant, 25, and Tyrell James Zloten, 23.
The next day, all seven were charged with offences related to the running of a criminal organization that trafficked fentanyl and cocaine.
The allegations against the group predate the public announcement of a task force made up of major crime detectives, street crime investigators and members of the guns and gangs unit by the police service in January of this year.
Police allege that between last December and until their arrests, Vaillant, Thibault and Fazeli instructed lieutenants Guy, Zloten, Mengesha and Labrecque to traffic fentanyl “for the benefit of the criminal organization.” Court documents also allege that Vaillant, Thibault, Mengesha and Fazeli did “participate in or contribute to” the group’s efforts to traffic fentanyl and cocaine. Charges were also laid against the group alleging conspiracy to traffic both fentanyl and cocaine.
When Fazeli was arrested, he had $2,000 in cash on him, and police allege it was all drug money. Same for the $25 found on Vaillant and the $115 on Mengesha. Police also charged Mengesha with possession of oxycodone for the purpose of drug dealing, and possession of cocaine.
Fazeli has links to at least one of the unsolved homicides the task force is working on, the Citizen has learned. Fazeli and homicide victim Leslie “Jugg” or “Beans” Mwakio, 17, gunned down on Dec. 6, 2016, inside a silver Jeep Patriot registered to another one of their mutual associates, were known associates in the drug trade.
Police, at the time of the fatal shooting, believed Mwakio was caught in the crossfire of a feud between men he associated with.
But the charges against The Fazeli Group were laid by police while investigating another unsolved gang homicide and not Mwakio’s killing. Those investigations all continue and police will not publicly address their status.
That task force is also investigating the 2016 fatal shooting of Abdi “Ajax” Jama in the parking lot of the former Suya Spot on Shillington Avenue in a dispute between two suspected gangs. Jama was himself a suspect in what remains an unsolved 2013 killing on Elgin Street. The task force is also investigating the 2011 shooting of Eric Vongviset at his home on Charleston Street and the 2009 club shooting of Mohamed “Casper” Ali at Bar 56.
Ali was shot in the stomach in an altercation that kicked off between what police suspect were two feuding gangs after a beer bottle was thrown in the club. Ali was a member of the Ledbury-Banff Crips.
Fazeli, once again behind bars, is well-known to police. In May of last year, he was among eight people arrested in a six-month investigation by provincial police and the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service called Project Coast. The drug-trafficking police operation aimed at smashing a network trafficking illegal and prescription drugs into northern aboriginal communities. It focused on the Timmins and Chapleau areas, and James Bay coastal communities, where high prices meant big profits for drug dealers.
Fazeli, then 31, was charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime.
Fazeli was also charged with drug trafficking after Ottawa police’s Project Ace, named after him, in 2012. The $100,000 drug bust targeted Fazeli, who was described by police informants at the time as a gang leader and the main cocaine supplier in Vanier with dreams to one day traffic to North Bay.
Thibault was also arrested in that project.
Fazeli and Thibault were also both charged with attempted murder in 2010 after a Wendover shooting that injured one man.
The task force has not yet laid charges in any of the homicides they’re probing.