Man who sold firearms to undercover agents gets eight years in prison

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A man who accidentally killed his friend a decade ago by shooting him in the back while handling an illegal firearm pleaded guilty on Tuesday to selling guns to an undercover officer two years ago year.

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Jonathan Mputu Bijimine, 34, was sentenced to an eight-year prison term at the Montreal courthouse after pleading guilty to a long series of charges before Quebec Court judge Erick Vanchestein, including that of to have 50 grams of cannabis in a detention center. The time spent being taken into account in the sentence, Mputu still has 62 months in prison to serve.

The judge agreed to a joint sentencing recommendation made by defense attorney Gary Martin and prosecutor Éric Poudrier.

Mputu was among a dozen people arrested in October 2020 as part of a Montreal police investigation into a gun-selling ring in and around Montreal. The purpose of the investigation was to get semi-automatic assault rifles, like the AR-15, off the streets. On May 1, 2020, the AR-15 rifle was included in a long list of assault rifles classified as federally prohibited weapons.

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Poudrier told the judge that the first firearm sold by Mputu during the investigation was a Glock pistol. After exchanging a series of text messages with an undercover agent working for the police, Mputu met his client on June 6, 2020, in the parking lot of a Laval hotel and sold the weapon for $5,000.

More than a month later, on August 19, 2020, Mputu met an agent outside the same hotel and sold another pistol and silencer for $6,500.

“It was always the undercover officers’ goal to get (AR-15) and they made a deal with Mr. Mputu to buy two long guns for $15,000,” Poudrier said.

Mputu was arrested in October 2020 when he showed up in Mirabel to meet two double agents. Two semi-automatic rifles were found in the trunk of the vehicle in which he arrived. Another firearm was seized from an Airbnb where he was staying during the investigation. When the other 11 people were arrested, police seized a few more guns as well as small amounts of crack cocaine, heroin and cannabis.

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Mputu’s criminal record was entered into evidence on Tuesday. Poudrier asked the judge to take note of a 2012 case, where Mputu pleaded guilty to manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm in the death of his longtime friend Jonathan Gédéon. Mputu confessed that he was with Gédéon and another friend on January 19, 2012, in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant on Décarie Boulevard. when handling a prohibited firearm. The gun detonated by accident and Gideon was shot in the back.

The judge who sentenced Mputu that year to a six-year prison term ruled that while the shooting was accidental, it occurred while he was committing a crime, unlawful possession of a firearm.

Another person arrested in connection with the Montreal police investigation in 2020 was Jonathan Klor, 35, of Pierrefonds, the former leader of a street gang based in the West Island. In 2012, Klor was sentenced to 14 years in prison after being found guilty of the attempted murder of three rival gangs. The attempted murders took place in 2009.

On April 1, Klor pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with the intent to traffic and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was acquitted of two charges related to a loaded firearm seized during the inquest in 2020.

Some of the other people charged in the same investigation have court dates scheduled for July and August.

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