Lengthy sentence expected for city man

A Winnipeg man who sold powerful illicit opioid pills and laundered the illicit cash at Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries casinos is expected to serve a lengthy sentence in federal prison.

Mohammad Riyadul Hoque, who’s in his early 30s, pleaded guilty to trafficking fentanyl and laundering the proceeds of crime Monday in front of Court of King’s Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery.

Hoque will be sentenced later this year, where federal Crown prosecutor Matt Sinclair and defence lawyer Saul Simmonds intend to jointly recommend a “substantial” penitentiary term, said Simmonds. Sentences of two years or more are served in federal prison.

Sinclair gave Lanchbery a brief overview of Hoque’s drug trafficking and money laundering at casinos owned by the provincial government.

In May 2023, RCMP investigators observed Hoque conducting “brief transactions” throughout Winnipeg that the Mounties believed were drug sales, said Sinclair.

“They also received information that Mr. Hoque was spending a lot of money at the casino,” said Sinclair.

RCMP then decided to conduct an undercover operation, sending an agent to purchase illicit drugs from Hoque, beginning in August 2023.

The undercover operator first bought two rocks of crack cocaine on Aug. 1 and made several more purchases of crack and opioid pills over several weeks.

The pills were sold as the opioid oxycodone, but were actually fentanyl — an opioid that can be up to 100 times more powerful.

Simmonds told court that Hoque was not personally aware the pills he was selling were in fact made of fentanyl.

RCMP investigators also confirmed cash given to Hoque by the undercover agent was used to buy in at city casinos, said Sinclair.

On Sept. 18, 2023, when the undercover operative purchased 210 opioid pills, investigators arrested Hoque.

Investigators executed search warrants on his vehicle and home on Denson Place in Winnipeg. Sinclair said Mounties seized more than 400 of the fake fentanyl pills, other opioid pills, more than 400 grams of crack cocaine and more than 200 pre-paid Visa gift cards in the home.

RCMP found more crack and pills in Hoque’s vehicle.

Other charges — Hoque was also accused of possessing the proceeds of crime and another count of drug trafficking upon his arrest in September 2023 — are expected to be stayed at a later date.

Hoque may face consequences from federal immigration officials due to the length of the sentence being sought, Simmonds said.

Permanent residents and foreign nationals can face deportation proceedings for serious criminal convictions.

Hoque’s exact immigration status was not immediately made clear on Monday. He was assisted in court by a translator who spoke Bengali.

The provincial government is seeking to retain some of Hoque’s properties and vehicles — which investigators believe he purchased with drug money — via a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed in 2023.

The lawsuit, which remains before the court, details the RCMP’s investigation. Hoque is fighting the civil case and has filed a statement of defence in response.

Mounties have said in the civil court documents he laundered millions of dollars, mostly at Club Regent and McPhillips Station, and occasionally the downtown Shark Club, over three years beginning in 2021. The civil court papers say the RCMP’s investigation began in October 2022.

Hoque gambled $3.5 million and cashed out nearly $4 million in 2021, gambled $5.7 million and cashed out $6.2 million in 2022, and gambled $864,000 and cashed out about $439,000 in 2023, per numbers produced by MLL security investigators.

Criminal allegations that Hoque trafficked significant amounts of cocaine and fentanyl from Winnipeg to First Nations in northern Manitoba were not raised in court Monday.

At the time of his arrest at his home in Winnipeg in 2023, RCMP said their nearly yearlong investigation into Hoque linked him to drug couriers with ties to Red Sucker Lake, Garden Hill, Wasagamack and St. Theresa Point First Nations on Island Lake.

Mounties alleged at the time the couriers would pick up fentanyl pills and crack cocaine from Hoque in Winnipeg and fly the drugs to the isolated areas via commercial air flights.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca