Miami Beach restaurateur held in alleged cocaine-distribution ring led by ex-Olympian
A 36-year-old Miami Beach restaurateur who owns a multi-million dollar mansion in Aventura will be held in a federal lock-up after his recent arrest for his alleged role in an international cocaine-distribution ring.
Nahim Jorge Bonilla on Tuesday chose not to challenge his detention in Miami federal court as he awaits being transferred to Los Angeles, the alleged distribution hub of a Canadian drug-trafficking organization led by a former Olympic athlete.
Bonilla’s defense lawyers, Paul Petruzzi and Lawrence Hashish, told a magistrate judge that their client was willing to wait to contest his detention until after his transfer to Los Angeles — where he’s one of 16 defendants listed in an indictment. A striking allegation in the 53-page indictment is that the organization’s leaders threatened to kill Bonilla’s mother if he didn’t repay them for a cocaine load that they had fronted to him.
Bonilla was arrested last Wednesday by FBI agents during a search of his home at 3914 Island Estates Drive in Aventura. Bonilla bought the 6,522-square-foot mansion from famed record producer DJ Khaled for $4.8 million in 2020, according to the real estate publication, The Real Deal. Bonilla is also the owner of Mandrake, the restaurant at 210 23rd St. in Miami Beach.
A dozen arrests related to the drug-trafficking organization were made in the U.S., Colombia, Mexico and Canada. But the FBI noted that four members of the organization, including the alleged ringleader, Ryan James Wedding, 43, are still at large.
Wedding competed on the Canadian snowboarding team during the 2002 Winter Olympics. But instead of continuing his athletic achievements, “he chose to become a major drug trafficker and he chose to become a killer,” said Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.
Along with trafficking tons of kilos of cocaine a year into the U.S. and Canada, the FBI said Wedding’s gang used contract killers to murder at least four people, including a couple in Canada visiting from India, who were shot dead in front of their daughter — also wounded by gunfire.
Threatened to kill Aventura man’s mother
According to the indictment, Wedding and his second-in-command, Andrew Clark, agreed to supply Bonilla with 12 kilos of cocaine for distribution, with Bonilla agreeing to pay them for 7 kilos upon delivery. Wedding then agreed to front Bonilla the other 5 kilos for distribution.
The indictment says Wedding and Clark “would threaten to kill defendant Bonilla’s mother if he did not either pay his outstanding debt for the 5 kilograms of cocaine or return the cocaine.”
In turn, the indictment says, Bonilla made a cryptocurrency payment for 2 kilograms of cocaine and sent a driver to Laval, Québec, Canada to offer 20 kilos of methamphetamine as payment for the 3 remaining kilograms of cocaine.
According to federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, Wedding’s organization bought its cocaine from Colombia and shipped it to Mexico — where he was running the operation.
From Mexico, the group used long-haul truckers to transport the drugs to Los Angeles, where the loads would be taken to various stash houses in the area over the past year, according to the indictment. From the stash houses, Estrada, the U.S. attorney, detailed how they would use long-haul truckers to deliver the contraband to the East Coast of the United States and various parts of Canada.
The group used various cryptocurrency “wallets” to launder the drug proceeds, Estrada said. Agents underscored that in one wallet alone, they found more than $3 million.
Wedding has a prior conviction for drug trafficking in the U.S., serving four years in prison.
“Upon his release, we believe he went back to drug trafficking, and in fact built this ruthless and prolific organization,” Estrada said.
This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 5:33 PM.
