Everyone knows that the weapons used by Canadian criminals are often introduced clandestinely from the United States. But no one knows it as well as Naomi Haynes who coordinated a contraband network.
This Montrealer, living in the United States for decades, participated in the traffic of dozens of weapons in Canada, some directly leading to the hands of gangs of drug traffickers.
I did not think of the ravages that I was causing in my native country
She said repentant to CBC News last week.
I have my children, bills to pay. I only thought of my financial gains. I did not think of the people who would be affected.
CBC News established contact with Naomi Haynes while she was in prison, first by email and then with a defective video prison application, and finally as part of a long interview following her release last year after almost 5 years in prison.
From her years of incarceration in Alabama, she remembers the cruelty of the guards who respected only the caïds, of 13 horrible days in isolation because she had contracted COVVIR. I felt like a dog in a kennel … The room was dirty. It was disgusting. Lavabos water was brown.
But the hardest part was the death of his parents and the impossibility of attending their funeral.
Naomi Haynes’ beloved mother died of cancer while she was in prison. On the death of her father, she had already left, but she had to attend the funeral on Zoom: Mrs. Haynes cannot leave the United States because she fights against her expulsion.
Pray so that weapons are confiscated
What about potential victims of firearms: does his feeling of guilt extend to them? As a vegetarian who cares about the fate of animals, she sometimes wonders if humans have been injured by the weapons she introduced in Canada?
Several Canadian cities record an increase in the number of shootings in their respective territories.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Bobby Hristova
At first, no, the 45 -year -old woman agrees with Jamaican origins. Once launched, his only concern was money and payment of invoices. But during her years in prison, she began to think about the pain of others, that of other families, and to wonder if her weapons had killed young children during a shooting.
I pray constantly so that these weapons are confiscated
she said.
I do not want to know that I am responsible for someone’s death.
How did this vegetarian woman, graduated in political science, and living in the south of Florida in the end of it? Part of the answer can be explained by the family context in which it has evolved in Montreal.
An already eventful youth
Naomi Haynes grew up surrounded by drug traffickers. His late father sold crack, then smoked.
In a book she writes about her life, Haynes describes a period when he has become more mean, unconscious and indifferent, eyes injected with blood. His book describes a sister imprisoned for sale of ecstasy. Another member of his family, his brother, headed a local street gang, The Outlawsaccording to the daily La Gazette de Montréal.
From his childhood, Naomi Haynes had a atypical life. Its half -finished memories, entitled The Runner– Tripped by the Fedsstart as well: From as far as I remember, I have always been an easy prey.
Naomi Haynes, shortly after her release from prison in February 2024. She bought this watch there and the door in memory of lost time.
Photo : Naomi Haynes
As a child, she was shopping for adults and kept the currency; recovered the beer bottles from their parties and brought them against money; And later, smuggling cigarettes claimed. I won my first $ 1000 in secondary 1
she writes.
It is to pay for his studies at the Florida Atlantic University May she embark on smuggling. At first, she brought in hashish, hashish oil and marijuana in Canada. Then ecstasy and cocaine.
It was only many years later that she started selling weapons. Around 2016, Naomi Haynes was desperately short of money: she was divorced, mother of a baby, unemployed and her eldest son played baseball.
All those with whom I have always done business always said: “No weapons, no weapons, no weapons, because it can be retraced”
she said CBC News.
The trafficking of handguns worries Canadian authorities.
Photo : Getty Images
But arms trafficking in Canada is an activity that reports: $ 4,000 for a new handgun that costs a few hundred dollars in southern Florida. Naomi trafficked about twenty at a time and once admitted two convoys which brought in $ 160,000.
By subtracting the cost of the purchase, the part of the driver and her partner, she estimates that she has kept about $ 30,000, which allowed her to live comfortably for a few months.
Traffic 101 according to Haynes
- Rule no1 – Only one person per vehicle to prevent both partners to contradict themselves in the event of verification at the border. The second vehicle follows the other remotely.
- Rule no2 – Create compartments hidden under the seats, in the door panels or in the trunk. She also transported drugs to a fuel tank, in vacuum bags sealed three times.
- Rule no3 – Choosing drivers who do not awaken suspicion, a white woman is ideal. Naomi Haynes did not carry weapons herself, she was too often stopped.
Then things started to go wrong in February 2018. She bought 20 weapons in various Florida firearms and entered Canada a few days later via New York State. But on his return to the United States, the authorities stop $ 4,300 in cash and several mobile phones where they discover the counterfeit identity documents of several of his partners.
A few weeks later, agents of the American alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives presented themselves at her home in Boca Raton and confront her with her contradictions and lies. In the United States, perjury is a crime liable to prison.
In addition, weapons arriving fraudulently in Canada through its network are making headlines to the news. A loaded 9 mm bullfight was found hidden in the panel of a car, next to around $ 300,000 in cocaine.
A few days later, a Ruger. 380 was found during another drug seizure. The suspect threw him while trying to flee the police.
An informant in his ranks
In September of that year, a friend whom she had hired was arrested while crossing the border to Canada from New York State, carrying 20 hidden weapons. Naomi Haynes was filmed crossing the border 62 minutes later.
At this point, the police had found an informant. They secretly recorded the conversations within his entourage, including the daughter of Naomi Haynes.
On February 27, 2019, Mackenzie Delmas, his daughter’s boyfriend, was arrested. The police informer had just delivered weapons to him. Delmas was immediately arrested.
The agents searched his home, as well as that of Naomi Haynes. It was then that she understood that she was damn. She was visiting her parents, in the Montreal region. His daughter called her from Florida in the middle of the night to tell her the news. The 45 -year -old woman collapsed on the family sofa in the midst of a panic crisis.
Her mother was trying to calm her down by massaging her back. She remembered that she asked him: What’s going on?
Naomi Haynes admitted what she had done. The whole story. My mother was so disappointed.
It was then that she made the decision to surrender. I knew I was cooked
she said.
I said to myself: “I’m not going to live on the run. I have to accept reality. My time has come.”
In Canada, the National Center for Firearm Screening helps the front -line police services by establishing the history of a firearm. This makes it possible in particular to detect potential traffickers as well as their nominees.
In 2024, the center carried out 7049 screenings, three times more than in 2020. Of this number, 4238 were identified as firearms used to commit a crime.
According to an article by Alexandre Panetta, CBC News
