Released and Re-Arrested: Convicted Trafficker in Canada’s Largest Carfentanil Case Breached Bail Within Weeks

Ottawa’s Obstruction of DEA Carfentanil Probe Underscores Carney–Poilievre Clash on Sentencing

OTTAWA — A convicted opioid trafficker from Pakistan, connected to Canada’s largest-ever carfentanil seizure, was released on bail just seven months after his conviction—and violated his release conditions within weeks, getting “arrested for a drug offence” after a late-night parking lot meeting in Greater Toronto, near the site of the original seizure, according to Ontario court records reviewed by The Bureau.

Maisum Ansari, the owner of a Pickering home where 42 kilograms of the ultra-lethal synthetic opioid were discovered in 2017, was convicted in February 2023 and sentenced to 20 years for possessing firearms and 26 kilograms of carfentanil for the purpose of trafficking. In September 2023, Justice Steve Coroza of the Ontario Court of Appeal granted Ansari bail pending appeal, ruling that his proposed supervision plan and appeal grounds met the legal threshold.

But a newly surfaced 2024 ruling shows that on October 28, 2023—just weeks after his release—Ansari was arrested in a vehicle in Whitby shortly before 3:30 a.m. with suspected drugs and later pleaded guilty to obstruction and impersonation charges after lying to police about his name.

“He explained that he lied about his name because he was worried that he could be charged with offences related to the drugs found in the vehicle,” the ruling says. “He denied lying because he was concerned about his curfew.”

Now, amid fallout from Canada’s 2025 federal election—where Pierre Poilievre pledged life sentences for fentanyl traffickers and Prime Minister Mark Carney countered that such measures would undermine Canada’s Charter of Rights—the Ansari case offers a real-world example of how Canada’s bail regime is colliding with high-stakes national security and public safety concerns.

As previously reported by The Bureau, the Pickering seizure had drawn interest from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which raised concerns about potential links to Chinese precursor suppliers and Pakistani threat networks.

Don Im, a former top DEA official, said his requests for sample access and deeper cooperation on the Pickering investigation were blocked by RCMP headquarters. At the time, Justin Trudeau’s Public Safety Minister, Ralph Goodale, publicly denied any national security links to those involved in the case.

But The Bureau’s review of court filings linked to a 2018 Danforth shooting rampage reveals a cross-provincial criminal history that could resonate with more recent investigations into large-scale fentanyl production in British Columbia. Canadian-based superlabs are suspected to have ties to networks operating between China, the Middle East, and Mexican cartels, according to Canadian and U.S. expert sources.

Danforth shooter Faisal Hussain’s older brother, Fahad Hussain, overdosed in the Pickering home in 2017 after handling carfentanil. Two years earlier, in 2015, Fahad was arrested in Saskatoon for allegedly selling crack cocaine. Released on the condition he reside at his family’s Toronto home, he was again charged in 2017 with possessing ammunition and violating bail conditions. That time, he was ordered to reside with a surety—Maisum Ansari—in Pickering.

The Ansari bail breach case describes what could be seen by a critical eye as an unusual late-night sequence of events: a meeting in a Pickering parking lot involving the exchange of items between vehicles, and multiple stops across the region. However, the judge did not assign any negative inference to the activity.

Justice Joseph Hanna wrote: “I have some reservations with certain aspects of Mr. Ansari’s evidence,” but added, “Despite the above-mentioned concerns, I am willing to give Mr. Ansari the benefit of the doubt that he was working in Scarborough, that he attended the No Frills parking lot, and then attended two addresses in Oshawa before travelling to Whitby.”

According to the ruling, after finishing work around 12:30 a.m., Ansari was driven by a man named Alex Vo to the Port Union area in Pickering, where he met Abidali Khimani in a No Frills parking lot at approximately 1:00 a.m.

Khimani testified that he picked up Ansari at the lot, where Ansari was with a couple of co-workers. The men reportedly discussed Khimani’s new BMW and transferred tools between vehicles. He said they were there for “a little bit just exchanging stuff.” Ansari testified that he moved a generator from one vehicle to another and had also picked up a container of vodka from a garage.

Afterwards, Khimani drove Ansari to his ex-wife’s residence in Oshawa, where they unloaded toolboxes, a generator, and other equipment. The pair then drove a short distance to Khimani’s home, where they moved additional tools.

In September 2017, with Fahad in a coma, fire crews responded to a carbon monoxide alarm at the Pickering house. Inside the basement, police found 33 firearms, specialized containment gear, and 42 kilograms of carfentanil—an amount DEA experts say could yield tens of millions of lethal doses.

As reported by The Globe and Mail, Ansari’s release in September 2023 came as Parliament debated bail reform legislation amid a national opioid death crisis. Although the proposed law focused on repeat violent offenders and wouldn’t have applied directly to Ansari, the ruling reaffirmed broader principles favoring release plans deemed credible.

Prosecutors portrayed Ansari as a cog in a trafficking enterprise. Babar Ali, who rented the Pickering unit, pleaded guilty and received 23 years. Ansari denied knowing about the drugs and guns, but the trial judge rejected his evidence as lacking credibility, citing lies to police and his mortgage lender and a web search history related to drug ingredients.

At trial, toxicologist Dr. Karen Woodall described carfentanil as up to 100 times stronger than fentanyl and 10,000 times more potent than morphine, noting it had been implicated in numerous deaths.