Montreal is a highly contested territory for criminals and gangsters, there’s no doubt about it. Sure, it has seen its fair share of street gangs throughout the ’90’s, but an explosion of street gangs has taken the city by the throat throughout the 2000’s. It’s not just the motorcycle clubs and the mafia running things nowadays. The city has seen an onslaught of street gangs towards the start of the new millennium, and there are cliques in every borough being established every year.
The founding fathers of the HAMC in Canada would be rolling in their graves if they knew the famed motorcycle club was being contested by a street gang which stood below their place on the criminal hierarchy, such as with the Blood Family Mafia conflict. Keep in mind, these OG’s, which formed biker organizations in the ’60’s, ’70’s and ’80’s in Quebec, were the same as these modern-day thugs from these newer gangs at one point. Just a couple delinquents looking for family and brothers. Maybe more reckless, maybe less. Least to say, it has gotten out of hand, with the street gangs basing their foundation on American street gangs, such as the Bloods, Crips and etcetera.
The modern day gangster seems to juggle both music and street life flawlessly. This is the case for Enima, who is the alleged founder of the Saint-Leonard street gang, STL. A rapper from the St-Leonard borough of Montreal on the east end of the island who broke through the scene in Montreal with his famed single “For The Low” in 2017. Even though he had been making music since 2015. St-Leonard was known for being a predominantly Italian neighborhood and still is. But since the 2010’s, a group of young people with malicious intent and a hunger for money had claimed the borough, naming their street gang as ‘STL’, reminiscent of an abbreviation of the borough. This is the story of Samir ‘Enima’ Slimani.
STL
STL is a street gang formed in the Saint-Leonard borough of Montreal at the end of the 2010’s and the beginning of the 2020’s. It consists mainly of members that are of Arabic and Haitian descent but is not exclusive to either. As of the summer of 2024, it has upwards of 50 members and claims allegiance to the color ‘Red’ or, in other words the ‘Bloods’. Take note, that on the island of Montreal, red plus red doesn’t always mean they get along. They have an alliance which includes the 24 Gang of the Saint-Francois borough of Laval along with the Flame Head Boys or FHB of Laval. They also have a sub-group named ‘EGK’, an abbreviation for ‘Everybody Gets Killed’.
An essential member in the foundation of the gang was a rapper that goes by the name of ‘Enima’ who started rapping in the 2010’s. Enima has had a hell of a past, including fleeing the province with authorities searching for him, but this has only gone to prove the truth he raps about in his songs. His following includes rappers such as VT, Gutta192, Nito STL & Wawa EGK which is a member of the EGK branch of STL. All of them are members of STL. These names just mentioned are a staple in the progression of Montreal rap and gang culture.
From The Cradle To The Trap
Enima, or Samir Slimani moved to the St-Leonard borough of Montreal towards the age of 10-years-old in 2003, he was born on January 11th of 1993. He moved to the great white north from Algeria, which is a country located in the Maghred region of North Africa bordered between Tunisia and Libya. On the 23rd of July in 2004, he gained his permanent residency.
At a young age, Enima committed petty theft, which led him to a Youth Center, or a Centre Jeunesse in French; a center for young misfits that commit crime under the age of 18. His very first troubles had occurred when he was expelled from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a school located in the Pointe-aux-Trembles borough of Montreal. His love affair with crime started off by stealing a pair of shoes but eventually snowballed into more major affairs.
During his teenage years, he committed various and multiple crimes and was tried for them although being a minor. Once he turned 18, these habits hadn’t changed, but rather progressed into more serious crimes. Throughout the 2010’s, Enima kept on gangbanging until a more serious event occurred in the summer of 2019 in Etobicoke, Ontario. One that would risk his residency in Canada, which made him flee the country before any charges were laid. Enima hadn’t been granted his Canadian citizenship even though he had lived in the country for well over a decade at the time. In 2014, he was deemed unable to even live in the country for his acts of criminality.
On the 5th of November in 2013, he was handed a 3 month sentence along with 2 years of probation afterwards for being in possession of stolen goods worth over 5000$. On the 24th of January, 2014, Canada immigration services had set on an order of expulsion due to his criminal affairs. Although, liberated from his sentence around the same time with a hefty amount of conditions including a 500$ caution. Enima fought the expulsion request, where he was granted to stay in the country due to ‘humanitarian reasons’, although he had to obey 18 different conditions including a monthly follow up at a police station and that he sign himself up for therapy.
Big Pimping
During 2017, Enima had dropped a mixtape named ‘Eclipse’ which had the famed single ‘For The Low’, most probably his biggest song. The name of the mixtape was inspired by the police intervention group ‘Groupe Eclipse’ which had arrested him on a gun charge the year before, in 2016. He had also released ‘MMS Vol. 1’ and ‘MMS Vol. 1.5’ in 2016 which was a pinnacle moment for the current state of Montreal rap. These two mixtapes had features such as rapper Izzy-S, LK tha Goon and White-B. M.M.S. is an abbreviation for ‘My Money Straight’. The drop of ‘Eclipse’ would be parralel to his entry to more seious crimes.
In 2017, he was accused of pimping and assault in Brampton, Ontario by police investigator Wayne Parkins, a member of the ‘Vice Squad’ who would soon pair up with the ‘Groupe Eclipse’ located 600-700 kilometers away in Quebec in efforts to tackle Enima, who was 24-years-old at the time. Enima was apprehended by authorities on April 7th of 2017 in southwest Ontario and was charged with pimping and human trafficking. During his trial, he stated “Que la salope de juge me tripote, je fais son salaire cette nuit”, translated “This bitch of a judge is making me trip, I’ll make her salary tonight.” Enima was released on bail while awaiting his court hearing for this specific case.
Enima was represented by lawyer Serge Lamontagne and had passed in a Toronto court on April 26th of 2018 for his charges in Ontario. All charges were acquitted with his lawyer stating how he had skimmed through the evidence of the case which had not held up in court.
Another Hoe, Another Case
Only a few months later after being arrested in Brampton, in August of 2017, he was once again arrested in Montreal in an apartment building on Boulevard Gouin in the presence of Ayoub Lakehal and a woman by the name of Pamela Thomassin. Enima was charged with possession of a prohibited firearm even though it was 26-year-old Pamela Thomassin who had a pistol along with ammunition in her purse at the time. The charges on Enima were later dropped after Thomassin pleaded guilty to the pistol charge nearly a year later. She was handed 90 days in prison along with 240 hours of community service. She told her lawyer that she obtained a firearm for her work in the sex industry, which the lawyer explained to the judge in court.
As for Enima, who had passed in court on the 27th of September, 2018, was acquitted of five charges including possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of false credit cards and negligent storage of ammunition. He did plead guilty to a charge of pimping and another human trafficking. He was handed 2 years probation along with 200 hours of community services. Ayoub Lakehal had only been convicted of possession of false credit cards throughout the case.
An Ironic Celebrity Scandal
In May of 2019, Enima was booked to play the Metro Metro urban music festival in Montreal. He was booked for the 19th of May on the Motorola Stage. During this festival, he met Quebec actress Ludivine Reding, in which she posted several pictures with the rapper on social media. Enima later claimed to have had a sexual relationship with the actress, which is not surprising after they had posted social media stories of the two kissing. He even went to the extent of bringing her on stage during his performance.
Reding was starring, at the time, in a TVA TV series called ‘Fugueuse’ created by Michelle Alain. Fugueuse is a direct translation to ‘Runaway’ in English. Reding portrayed ‘Fanny Couture’, a naïve 16-year-old runaway who gets mangled in the world of prostitution when she ‘falls in love’ with a pimp who takes advantage of her for monetary gain through prostitution, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
You can’t make this up; a renowned pimp who has miraculously beat past charges in relation to prostitution and openly raps about how he uses and manipulates women for monetary gain through prostitution. That rapper then starts a relationship with an actress who is portraying a character in a TV series about the harsh reality of prostitution and the sex industry. To say the least, this caused a huge public backlash which cut the relationship short after several pictures surfaced on the internet of the two together on May 19th, 2019.
Reding had made a public apology through social media and deleted the posts and photos of her and Enima on her social media. While Enima publicly states that he does not understand the actress’s grief as he was acquitted of his past pimping charges. He told the media that when he saw the apology made by Reding, only a day after the Metro Metro festival, he was struck with disappointment.
Enima name-dropped Reding in a few of his songs, most notably in ‘Cullinan’ where he states he had a wet dream of him having sex with the actress, then states it was an actual fact and he was told to keep his mouth shut regarding the affair. He was also seen going live and naming Reding by her character’s name ‘Fanny’ in the ‘Fugueuse’ TV series, mocking the scandal.
We will never really know if the two actually had genuine, heartfelt feelings about each other. The waves of the media are voraciously critical as Reding was only playing an actor and doing a job portraying a character in a story which she had no part in the creation of, but yet having her name dragged through the gutter.
Fugitive State Of Mind
In March of 2018, immigration services of Canada offered him a second chance to gain his citizenship in the country. A judge stated “He seems to have sincere regrets, ready to follow all these new restrictions imposed since he has a lot to lose in his new career as a rapper”. Everything was starting to look up for Enima, his rap career was growing, gaining fans by the thousands, all while playing huge festivals. As time passed, this would later prove to be false as time and time again, he proved to have no regrets, quitting his therapy sessions and being absent on his monthly visits to the police station starting in the month of June of 2019, only a month after the Ludivine Reding scandal. A little later, the Toronto Police Service put out a warrant for his arrest.
What was the warrant for? On June 16th, he was the main suspect in a shooting which had occurred in Etobicoke, Ontario. The incident happened in the parking lot of 33 Shore Breeze Drive. It had started out as a fight between Enima and a brother of Montreal rapper ‘KGoon’. Enima had then let off a gunshot between the struggle. KGoon’s brother had been hit, although the shot was not fatal, it did cause serious injuries to the victim. Enima had claimed on a livestream between him and KGoon that he ran off with his brother’s girlfriend after the incident, claiming that he had intentions to pimp her out, but we do not know if these claims were fact, or just braggadocious.
Although there was a warrant out for his arrest, Enima was nowhere to be found, right until news broke out in which he told his artist agency that he had left Canada to seek refuge in Algeria, where he had his citizenship. Not only did he have his citizenship, but Algeria had no extradition agreement with Canada. His immigration lawyer, Stephane Handfield, later stated to media that he had gone to France to record music in the European country. When he had appeared on the popular Quebec podcast ‘Prend Un Break’ (Take a Break), he simply stated he went to visit his grandmother in Algeria and the warrant and charges laid on him were simply a coincidence.
With immigration services being notified of the recent shooting, they withdrew Enima’s Permanent Resident status in the country of Canada. It’s as if he knew that he was no longer welcome in Canada. He had already been on a tight leash with his past convictions. He was well aware that even if he did his time for the shooting, that sooner or later, he would have been expulsed from the country. In other words he had quit before getting fired.
Time passed and Enima was going back and forth from Algeria, to Spain, still dropping tracks and releasing albums. He had not only stayed in the two countries stated above, but recorded a couple of his later records in France, hopping between different countries in the eastern world, being very careful to dodge an extradition request.
Pretty Woman
A dark chapter of Enima’s life occurred only six months after the birth of his first child. Slimani had a child with Pamela Thomassin, his co-accused in the Montreal raid in 2018. The relationship was deemed to be flaky and toxic when they had their child in 2022. This had led to an incident which took Enima’s custody of the child away.
The incident occurred during the night of the 13th of August, 2023. Earlier during the year on January 17th, Thomassin and their child had left, heading off to Quebec on a visit to see family. In which they returned to Spain on the 8th of May after receiving verbal threats from Enima.
A few months had passed by until the night of the 13th of August, Slimani and Thomassin had gotten into an argument. While the conflict occurred, Slimani had physically assaulted Thomassin before grabbing a knife and threatening her with it. Since that day, Slimani can only see his child through video conference sessions such as Facetime, Thomassin can end the video chat at any time if Slimani starts to act up during the call.
Enima has just dropped his 8th album this year named DZ D’Amerique, he also launched a soda brand in 2023 named Rap Soda and even has his signature flavour ‘MMS Blueberry’ and ‘MMS Strawberry Pineapple’ and now the new ‘Cream Soda’ flavor. Even though he’s not allowed in Canada anymore, he is very active on Instagram, posting pictures and setting the location to Montreal in efforts to taunt and throw off Canadian authorities.
His life is similar to a rollercoaster, having steep highs and low lows, but we can determine he was born and bred on the streets being a certified criminal in all aspects of the word. In December of 2022, his record label, MMS Records was signed to Capitol Records under the Universal Music Group, or UMG. His listeners do not only hail from Quebec, but France, Belgium, Spain and several different French-speaking countries around the world. It’s no doubt that he is an international superstar,
On the other hand, Music Canada withdrew two of his gold records in 2023 due to the fact that he is a wanted fugitive. We don’t agree with the latter, music is meant to be appreciated by the listener, given his ups and downs and writing lyrics on what he has ultimately lived as a lifestyle in the past makes it absolutely authentic. It’s not an act, it’s the truth. For an artist to be releasing albums truth-related events which occurred throughout his life is golden, and to be doing it while living it, concurrently is platinum. Your current status in the world is meant for another discussion, but it is absolutely bonkers to blacklist any artist, or person portraying any type of creative output. Take it for what it’s worth.
