Montreal police charge 2 people in connection with 15-year-old's overdose death
2 suspects allegedly sold synthetic opioids to teen who overdosed in his home
Montreal police have arrested and charged two people, including a man previously described as leading a "high-level" drug operation, with trafficking offences tied to last year's overdose death of a 15-year-old.
Officers arrested Laxhan Mylvaganam, 24, and a 17-year-old, on Tuesday. They also raided two apartments and one vehicle, seizing hundreds of pills.
The arrests are connected to the death of Mathis Boivin, 15, who died on Dec. 22, 2023 after overdosing on nitazene. Nitazene is a synthetic opioid five times stronger than fentanyl. He bought the pills online, consumed them before bed and died while his parents thought he was sleeping.
Both Mylvaganam and the 17-year-old face charges of drug trafficking and possession of illegal drugs with intent to traffic.
Cmdr. Yannick Desmarais, with the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, said investigators were able to tie the accused to the website from which Mathis bought the drugs that killed him, but they could not say with certainty who sold him the fatal substance, which is why they limited the charges to trafficking.
But the case was more straightforward to Christian Boivin, Mathis's father.
"For me, it's involuntary manslaughter. It's murder," he said.
Boivin said he felt "a lot of emotion" when he received a call from police announcing arrests tied to the death of his son.
"They removed some people from the street that killed other people," he said. The charges against Mylvaganam have not yet been tested in court.
Mylvaganam was previously convicted of drug trafficking crimes. In 2022, he was arrested, charged and convicted of selling illegal drugs, including opioids, via Snapchat, a social media application.
Undercover officers purchased drugs from him, which he sold out of his car, an Audi, before arresting him and seizing its contents, which included a plethora of illegal substances.
In a pre-trial decision that denied his release from jail that year, Judge Dennis Galiatsatos said Mylvaganam led a "high-level, lucrative and socially devastating drug operation."
"The Court is clearly not dealing with small fries," he wrote. "The sheer number and variety of drugs discovered are exorbitant."
Galiatsatos also said Mylvaganam glorified his line of work. He had a vanity licence plate displaying the name of his drug distribution company and flaunted the wealth he earned from selling drugs.
Mylvaganam was convicted in May 2022 and ordered to serve 33 months in prison. But police now say he was selling drugs again and was connected with the online drug-purchasing platform from which Mathis purchased the opioids that killed him.
Mylvaganam and two other co-accused appeared at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday.
Police arrested all of them on Tuesday, but said only Myvaganam and the 17-year-old were implicated in selling the drugs that led to Mathis's death.
Mylvaganam was remanded to custody awaiting a bail hearing on Sept. 23.
The 17-year-old appeared in youth court on Wednesday morning and will also have a bail hearing on Sept. 23.
Since his son's death, Boivin has spoken publicly in schools to spread awareness about the dangers of opioids. He said he hopes governments are more active and spend more money to prevent similar deaths.
"Are we going to wait for other teens like Mathis to die every day?" he said. "It's too late for my son, but maybe we can save others."
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With files from Rowan Kennedy and Radio-Canada