A Pointe-aux-Trembles man was sentenced Monday to 22 years in the United States for involvement in a fentanyl export operation directed from Drummondville prison by two accomplices, who will also receive their sentences later this month become.
Posted at 4:27pm.
Xuan Cahn Nguyen, 43, pleaded guilty on May 31 to conspiracy to distribute and import controlled substances, which resulted in serious bodily harm and death, and to conspiracy to launder money.
This conviction is part of a long-term Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OECDTF) operation on the international trade in fentanyl called Denial. It began in North Dakota on January 3, 2015 with the death of Bailey Henke from an overdose in Grand Forks.
In Fargo, in this state in the north of the country, Nguyen was sentenced on Monday. At the end of his sentence, he must remain under surveillance for three years. Remember, Nguyen was extradited from Canada to the United States on January 6, 2021.
As part of his guilty plea, the man admitted to having assisted Daniel Vivas Ceron and Jason Berry with their international distribution of fentanyl and related products, which they conducted out of Quebec’s Drummondville Correctional Facility.
A direct link between four deaths
PHOTO SUPPLIED BY THE RCMP
Xuan Cahn Nguyen
At this point in 2019, Ceron was incarcerated in the Drummondville Jail, serving a 19-year sentence on counts of attempted murder and drug trafficking. He had managed to plug a smartphone into his cell phone and use it to manage operations using aliases in an encrypted communications application and digital email addresses. Berry was his fellow prisoner at the time.
The latter is yet to receive his sentence in Fargo on July 24, while Daniel Vivas Ceron will receive his sentence the next day at the same venue.
“The reason the trial took place in the United States is because our investigation was able to show a direct link between four deaths and five overdoses [survenus aux États-Unis] because of the fentanyl distributed by the organization,” explained Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) drug specialist Jacques Théberge in an interview with La Presse.
Nguyen’s exact role in the fentanyl export operations was not clarified by US authorities on Monday, but “Ceron [étant] locked [lors des faits]So he needed people to facilitate transactions and transport the narcotics,” said RCMP drug specialist Jacques Théberge.
Fentanyl is a strong opioid pain reliever. Its use as a drug is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in the United States and Canada every year.
With Daniel Renaud, La Presse