Canadian man sentenced to 10 years in Massachusetts for drug trafficking, money laundering

BOSTON — A Canadian man was sentenced Monday in federal court to 10 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking, and money laundering organization that imported marijuana and ecstasy into the United States.

This sentence resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

David Nguyen, 40, of Toronto, Canada, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper and ordered to pay a fine of $10,000.  Nguyen had previously pleaded guilty in October 2016 to one count of conspiracy to distribute MDMA (aka ecstasy, or “mollie”) and marijuana and one count of money laundering conspiracy. Nguyen was indicted in January 2014 and arrested in Canada in May 2014.  In July 2016, Nguyen was ordered extradited, and in October 2016, he was temporarily surrendered from Canada to the United States.

From February 2010 to about March 2012, Nguyen conspired with others to move MDMA and marijuana over the Canadian-U.S. border. Nguyen and a Canadian co-conspirator, Gurshuran Singh, recruited couriers to drive MDMA and marijuana to Joshua Rabinovitch in Salem, Massachusetts. Rabinovitch then sold the drugs in the U.S. and returned the proceeds to Canada.

In March 2012, Singh and Nguyen recruited Shivinder Kanwal to drive 15 kilos of MDMA to Rabinovitch and, in April 2012, they separately recruited co-defendant Adeel Bhutta to pick up $240,000 in drug proceeds from Rabinovitch.

In July 2014, Bhutta was sentenced to 28 months in prison for his role in the money laundering conspiracy and in February 2015, Rabinovitch was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his role in the conspiracy. In August 2016, Singh pleaded guilty to participating in the drug and money laundering conspiracies and will be sentenced on April 5, 2017.  Kanwal pleaded guilty to participating in the drug conspiracy and will be sentenced on March 22, 2017.

The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance in securing Nguyen’s extradition to the United States. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seth B. Kosto of Ortiz’s Cybercrime Unit and Timothy E. Moran of Ortiz’s Organized Crime and Gang Unit prosecuted the case.