Quebec senior sentenced to 12 years for smuggling 7 kg of heroin from South Africa

Quebec senior sentenced to 12 years for smuggling 7 kg of heroin from South Africa

Maurice Nadeau, 72, maintains he was duped by criminal organization

A 72-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Tuesday for smuggling more than seven kilograms of heroin into Canada after travelling to South Africa on an all-expenses-paid trip he said he won in an online contest.

Maurice Nadeau, a military veteran originally from the small town of Chapais, Que., near Chibougamau, was convicted about a year ago of possessing and importing drugs.

He was unable to convince the judge to serve his sentence in the community.

During sentencing Tuesday, Quebec court Judge Éric de Champlain stressed the importance of denouncing this "social scourge" from which "many families suffer."

In May 2022, Nadeau was caught at Montreal's Trudeau airport with 7.2 kilograms of heroin hidden in a false-bottom suitcase. Nadeau, then 68, claimed the suitcase was given to him by a woman in Johannesburg whom he didn't know, and that he thought he was bringing back gifts.

He had a reservation at a Montreal hotel and was supposed to hand over the suitcase to a stranger there upon his return, according to court records.

The drugs were discovered because Nadeau told customs officers about the suitcase, saying it didn't belong to him and that he hadn't packed it.

Nadeau's lawyer, Mike Junior Boudreau, argued in court that his client was duped by a criminal organization. Leaving the courtroom on Tuesday, Boudreau said he didn't see how a 12-year sentence would benefit society, given Nadeau's age.

"To see him go to prison, I'll admit, it affects me. I feel very sorry for him," he said.

Boudreau said he will appeal the decision and continue to vouch for Nadeau's innocence.

International trips, strange errands

On March 4, 2022, Nadeau received a WhatsApp message from a man, a supposed English banker, telling him he had won $2.3 million US and needed to travel to South Africa to collect his prize, according to the judge's 2025 decision.

According to Nadeau, he had to bring back a gift from South Africa and sign some documents to receive his money in Canada.

It wouldn't be the first time Nadeau thought he had struck gold on the internet. In the fall of 2021, he was told he won an all-expenses-paid trip to 15 countries over 33 days through a Facebook contest.

He was also promised $2.3 million US at the end of the trip if he delivered a dentistry machine in London. Nadeau took the machine, weighing 38 kilograms, across 14 countries before leaving it in Paris in the hands of an unknown person, according to the decision.

His stay in each country lasted just a couple of days before the organizer would tell him over WhatsApp where to travel next. Nadeau testified that he never received the money.

So, less than a year later, when he was told he'd have to travel back from South Africa with a gift, Nadeau initially refused, saying he didn't want a repeat of the dentistry machine ordeal. Somewhere along the way, his attitude changed, and he boarded the plane with the suitcase, having inspected it quickly.

In the June 2025 decision, de Champlain said Nadeau displayed willful ignorance as to the possibility that the suitcase could be carrying illicit substances.

He also didn't believe Nadeau's claim that he didn't think the two international trips promising the same amount of money were related, or that he was particularly vulnerable to fraudulent messages over the internet in this case.

In his sentencing Tuesday, the judge highlighted inconsistencies in Nadeau's story and his travel experience.

"The court did not find that the offender was the victim of phishing," he said.

Cassandra Yanez-Leyton is a journalist for CBC News based in Montreal. You can email her story ideas at cassandra.yanez-leyton@cbc.ca.