Hamed Shawnawaz, former co-accused of Samir Abdelgadir responsible for the kidnapping of a Toronto teenager following an alleged drug bust in March 2020, testified Friday that his former friend trusted him four days after the kidnapping.
Shawnawaz said the two met at Maplehurst Institution in 2015, where they spent 58 days together as cellmates. Upon his release from prison, Shawnawaz said he bought drugs from Abdelgadir and then trafficked them to Winnipeg, where he lived.
In 2016, Shawnawaz said he was sentenced to nine years and nine months in prison for two drive-by shootings and after being conditionally released from the Beaver Creek facility in 2019, he said he contacted Abdelgadir to see if there was a way to “make money on the side.”
At the time, he was living in a halfway house in Brampton and working as a machine operator at a brownie factory. He testified that the $20 an hour he earned “was not sustainable given his lifestyle and expenses.”
Shawnawaz told Superior Court Judge Sandra Nishikawa, who is presiding alone trialthat he was interested in white-collar crime, which he defined as “not hurting someone, a human being.” What I have been accused of in the past. He explained that drug trafficking was out of the question. “Samir wouldn’t do anything to me without money,” he explained.
Shawnawaz said Abdelgadir put him in touch with associates who were looking for someone to collect the stolen vehicles and set them on fire as part of an insurance scam. He testified that he was paid between $1,000 and $2,000 per vehicle and that he often worked with a high school friend named Solaiman Nassimi who helped him steal the vehicles.
Shawnawaz said he did not remember the date the Jeep Wrangler was stolen, but that after the theft he parked it near his ex-wife’s house and waited for further instructions. He said he didn’t know what happened on the morning of March 4, 2020, because he was residing at the halfway house, but later that day he received a call from an associate named “Sunny” who let him know where the vehicle was. and to get rid of it. Shawnawaz did not remember precisely where Nassimi picked up the Jeep, but said that when they arrived, the keys were inside.
Former drug dealer said he drove the Jeep to the Forks of the Credit Conservation Area and poured gasoline from a jerry can onto the interior of the vehicle . After lighting a flare, Shawnawaz said at first it didn’t light because there was no oxygen, but after opening the window a little, there was a ball of fire and it caused the interior of the vehicle to explode.
“My eyebrows were burned and my face literally felt like it smelled of gasoline,” Shawnawaz said. “I started to panic a little, the fire was raging, it was very cold and dark. I ran to Solaiman Nassimi’s vehicle and we left.
Get the latest national news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up to receive breaking news alerts sent directly to you as they happen.
Shawnawaz said they returned to the mall where he left his car before returning to the halfway house. He said after he took a shower and threw his clothes in the washing machine because they smelled like gasoline, an Amber Alert went off.
“That’s when I realized what the Jeep was for. The T description of what the vehicle looked like. I got nervous and started to panic. I was just wondering if I did something wrong to find myself.
Four days later, Shawnawaz said he met Abdelgadir at a Starbucks off Hurontario Street in Mississauga, near the QEW, and spoke for the first time about the kidnapping. “How it didn’t go as planned and how furious he was,” Shawnawaz told the court, how Abdelgadir “opened up, he didn’t want to give up what he had taken and there was a lot of heat on him, on his team.”
Assistant Crown attorney Erin Pencer asked if he knew what Abdelgadir was talking about. Shawnawaz replied: “Basically I did, yes. That it was a large quantity of cocaine. I knew they had lost a large quantity of cocaine.
Pencer asked if this was the first time Shawnawaz had heard of his kidnapping. Shawnawaz said that was the case, but explained that he didn’t ask any questions. “Samir is a dangerous individual. I didn’t want him to know I was scared, so I didn’t ask those kinds of questions.
According to an agreed statement of facts filed at the start of the trial, a 14-year-old boy whose identity is covered by a publication ban was abducted around 8:30 a.m. on March 4, 2020, outside 345 Driftwood Ave., after witnesses reported seeing two men grab the teen and throw him into a black Jeep Wrangler. The teen was driven in a Jeep, tandem with a black Tahoe and a white Mercedes SUV to a home on Edgeforest Drive in Brampton.
When the vehicle stopped, the teen was asked to get out and close his eyes. He was then blindfolded with a white t-shirt. Zip ties were used to secure his wrists. He was taken to the ground floor of the house where his feet were tied with rope.
There, the kidnappers asked him for the password to his phone and how he communicated with his half-brother. He told them he sometimes used Snapchat. The kidnappers told the boy it was because his brother had done something bad to them.
That afternoon, the teen’s mother took a nap and woke up to find three missed calls from her older son, the teen’s half-brother. She called her son back and he told his mother that he had received a message from his younger brother’s Snapchat saying, “Give up what you stole and everything will be okay.” »
The mother tried to text her 14-year-old son, but he didn’t respond. She also learned that her son never arrived at school that day. At 5:37 p.m., the boy’s father called 911 and told the dispatcher that his son had been kidnapped and never arrived at school that day.
When police arrived, the teen’s half-brother admitted he owed some people money, about $50,000 in total. The brother wouldn’t say what he owed the money, but said it wasn’t for drugs or guns. The brother also provided police with two voicemails and two videos he received that day.
One of the videos showed the 14-year-old lying on the ground with his ankles and wrists bound. On the screen it said: “Do you want the fingers or your mother’s?” The second video showed the teen lying on the ground with his hands and ankles tied. On the screen it said: “Senor, are you still laughing?
According to the facts, the teenager said that while in detention, he heard his captors having what sounded like an argument on the phone. While he was blindfolded throughout his order, he peeked behind the blindfold every now and then. After six hours at home, he fell asleep. While he was in the boiler room, he was fed McDonald’s and Tim Hortons. He also drew his initials in dust on a mirror.
On March 4, 2020, at 9:57 p.m., a 911 call was made regarding a fire at Forks of the Credit Provincial Park. When they arrived, the police saw a vehicle completely engulfed in flames.
Just after midnight on March 5, an Amber Alert was issued for the 14-year-old boy with a vehicle description matching that of the burned vehicle found in Forks of the Credit. The officer believed the vehicle he found in the park was connected to the kidnapping.
On the evening of March 5, the teenager’s wrists and ankles were untied and left in the boiler room of the house. Duct tape, ropes and zip ties bearing the teen’s DNA were left on the ground. His clothes were then removed and he was given a reflective construction vest.
The teen was taken to the home’s garage and noticed several suspects in the home. He was taken in a vehicle that was not the Jeep Wrangler to a rural property on Heritage Road in Brampton. He was left in a barn on the property and was later found by police at 10:15 p.m. that evening, approximately 38 hours after being abducted. The teen was wearing underwear, a reflective vest and was not wearing shoes.
Shawnawaz told the court he pleaded guilty to stealing the Jeep and setting it on fire in August 2023. The kidnapping charge against him was withdrawn. He said he decided to make a statement to police after pleading guilty.
“I have had many years to think about the lifestyle I had chosen. I felt like it was the right thing to do to free me and change my life,” Shawnawaz told the court about why he decided to testify.
Solaiman Nassimi, who also pleaded guilty to stealing and burning the Jeep, is expected to testify Monday. His kidnapping charge was also withdrawn by the Crown.
The Crown stayed charges against Scott McManus in 2020. He was charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, including kidnapping. Charges against Lebanon Hussein were also dropped following the preliminary hearing. He was then assassinated in March 2024.
Samid Abdelgadir has pleaded not guilty and is released on bail.