Judge scraps 'unintelligible' order to free self-professed hitman claiming asylum

The front doors to the Federal Court of Canada are pictured in Ottawa on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

OTTAWA — A Federal Court judge has ordered that a self-described hitman associated with a Mexican drug cartel remain in custody, throwing out a refugee board member’s ruling that he be released pending his asylum case.

Justice Julie Blackhawk says the application for release must be reconsidered by a different board member than the original one whose reasoning she found “unintelligible.”

She says it’s “impossible to reconcile” Immigration and Refugee Board member Maleeka Mohamed’s March 7 finding that the man posed a low danger, with his recorded admissions that he was a hitman.

Blackhawk’s ruling on Tuesday says the man, who overstayed a work visa, was expelled from Canada in 2015 without being charged after telling an undercover officer in Vancouver about working as a killer, including fees, methods and “disposal techniques.”

She says that in February, the man returned to Canada at an unofficial entry point on the U.S. border with his child and claimed asylum, based on fear of the child’s mother and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

He was then arrested and detained as a danger to the public, before Mohamed ordered him released with conditions — a ruling Blackhawk says was unjustified for reasons including his links to the La Familia drug cartel.

“The member’s conclusion that the passage of time and lack of criminal charges mitigates against the danger to the public, considering other relevant/contradictory evidence that indicated the respondent has ongoing ties to former associates from La Familia, is unreasonable,” Blackhawk’s ruling in Ottawa Federal Court says.

She said Mohamed failed “to grapple with important evidence concerning the respondent’s criminal activity.”

The ruling says the man remains in detention at the maximum-security Maplehurst Correctional Centre in Ontario, while the child is staying with family members in British Columbia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2025.

The Canadian Press