diff --git a/families/llama/runtime/CMakeLists.txt b/families/llama/runtime/CMakeLists.txt
index e0dfbae4e9..09284950c7 100644
--- a/families/llama/runtime/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/families/llama/runtime/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ install(TARGETS trtmc_model_llama
 )
 
 if(TRTMC_BUILD_TESTS)
-  foreach(test_name IN ITEMS test_llama_chat_template test_llama_native_kv_cache)
+  foreach(test_name IN ITEMS test_llama_chat_template test_llama_native_kv_cache
+                             test_llama_pretokenizer_variant)
     add_executable(${test_name}
       ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/families/llama/tests/cpp/${test_name}.cpp
     )
diff --git a/families/llama/runtime/bpe_tokenizer.cpp b/families/llama/runtime/bpe_tokenizer.cpp
index 860defc1df..742a4e7d3c 100644
--- a/families/llama/runtime/bpe_tokenizer.cpp
+++ b/families/llama/runtime/bpe_tokenizer.cpp
@@ -1272,19 +1272,52 @@ class BpeTokenizer final : public ITokenizer {
         return pretok::Variant::kLlama;
     }
 
-    // Detect variant from the Split inside a Sequence pre_tokenizer.
+    // Detect variant from the Split step(s) inside a Sequence pre_tokenizer.
+    // Some checkpoints isolate digit-grouping (\p{N}{1,3}) as its own Split
+    // step, ahead of the step whose regex actually identifies the variant
+    // (e.g. Qwen3's `[^\r\n...`). That earlier step's regex never matches
+    // any known variant signature and falls through to kLlama, so scanning
+    // stops before reaching the real classifier. Scan every Split step for
+    // classification instead of only the first; take the digit-group size
+    // independently, from whichever step's own regex encodes one, since the
+    // classifying step and the digit-grouping step are not guaranteed to be
+    // the same step.
     static pretok::Variant detect_split_variant(const nlohmann::json& pt, int& digit_group_out) {
         digit_group_out = 0;
         if (!pt.contains("pretokenizers"))
             return pretok::Variant::kLlama;
+
+        pretok::Variant variant = pretok::Variant::kLlama;
+        bool variant_found = false;
         for (auto& sub : pt["pretokenizers"]) {
             if (sub.value("type", "") != "Split")
                 continue;
             if (!sub.contains("pattern") || !sub["pattern"].contains("Regex"))
                 continue;
-            return classify_split(sub, digit_group_out);
+            const auto regex = sub["pattern"]["Regex"].get<std::string>();
+
+            if (digit_group_out == 0) {
+                if (int group = parse_digit_group(regex); group > 0)
+                    digit_group_out = group;
+            }
+
+            int step_digit_group = 0; // discarded; digit_group_out is tracked separately above
+            pretok::Variant step_variant = classify_split(sub, step_digit_group);
+            if (step_variant == pretok::Variant::kLlama)
+                continue;
+            if (variant_found && step_variant != variant) {
+                throw std::runtime_error(
+                    "Ambiguous Sequence pre_tokenizer: Split steps classify to different "
+                    "variants (" +
+                    std::to_string(static_cast<int>(variant)) + " and " +
+                    std::to_string(static_cast<int>(step_variant)) + ")");
+            }
+            if (!variant_found) {
+                variant = step_variant;
+                variant_found = true;
+            }
         }
-        return pretok::Variant::kLlama;
+        return variant;
     }
 
     static bool is_space_split_pre_tokenizer(const nlohmann::json& pt, const std::string& pt_type) {
diff --git a/families/llama/tests/cpp/test_llama_pretokenizer_variant.cpp b/families/llama/tests/cpp/test_llama_pretokenizer_variant.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f4e89dd0d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/families/llama/tests/cpp/test_llama_pretokenizer_variant.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,191 @@
+/*
+ * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+
+// detect_split_variant() previously returned on the first Split step found
+// in a Sequence pre_tokenizer, even when that step's regex classifies as
+// the generic kLlama default. Checkpoints that isolate digit-grouping
+// (\p{N}{1,3}) as its own Split step ahead of the step that actually
+// identifies the variant (e.g. Qwen3's `[^\r\n...` signature) were
+// misclassified as kLlama, silently disabling variant-specific
+// pre-tokenization behavior (trailing-newline attachment, grouped digit
+// runs) for the whole checkpoint.
+//
+// The first two checks below use the pre_tokenizer field exactly as
+// published in openbmb/MiniCPM5-2B's tokenizer.json (a real, public
+// checkpoint that triggers this misclassification), so a passing result
+// here reflects the real checkpoint's own regex shapes, not a synthetic
+// stand-in. The third check is a synthetic fixture verifying the
+// ambiguous-classification case (two Split steps that each classify to a
+// different, non-kLlama variant) throws rather than silently picking one.
+
+#include "families/llama/runtime/tokenizer.h"
+
+#include <cstdint>
+#include <iostream>
+#include <stdexcept>
+#include <string>
+#include <vector>
+
+namespace {
+
+int failures = 0;
+
+void check_ids(const std::vector<int32_t>& actual, const std::vector<int32_t>& expected,
+               const char* name) {
+    if (actual == expected)
+        return;
+    std::cerr << "FAIL: " << name << " expected";
+    for (const int32_t token : expected)
+        std::cerr << ' ' << token;
+    std::cerr << " got";
+    for (const int32_t token : actual)
+        std::cerr << ' ' << token;
+    std::cerr << '\n';
+    ++failures;
+}
+
+// MiniCPM5-2B's actual pre_tokenizer field (openbmb/MiniCPM5-2B,
+// tokenizer.json): a digit-grouping Split step first, then the real
+// classifying (Qwen3-shaped) Split step second, then ByteLevel.
+constexpr const char* kMiniCPM5PreTokenizer = R"(
+  "pre_tokenizer": {
+    "type": "Sequence",
+    "pretokenizers": [
+      {
+        "type": "Split",
+        "pattern": {"Regex": "\\p{N}{1,3}"},
+        "behavior": "Isolated",
+        "invert": false
+      },
+      {
+        "type": "Split",
+        "pattern": {
+          "Regex": "(?i:'s|'t|'re|'ve|'m|'ll|'d)|[^\\r\\n\\p{L}\\p{N}]?\\p{L}+|\\p{N}+| ?[^\\s\\p{L}\\p{N}]+[\\r\\n]*|\\s*[\\r\\n]+|\\s+(?!\\S)|\\s+"
+        },
+        "behavior": "Isolated",
+        "invert": false
+      },
+      {
+        "type": "ByteLevel",
+        "add_prefix_space": false,
+        "trim_offsets": true,
+        "use_regex": false
+      }
+    ]
+  })";
+
+// Trailing newlines after punctuation should stay attached to the same
+// pre-token (Qwen3-variant behavior) rather than split off as their own
+// whitespace token. Only reachable if the second Split step's regex is
+// actually used to classify the variant, not the first.
+void check_newline_attachment() {
+    const std::string tokenizer_json = std::string(R"({
+      "model": {
+        "type": "BPE",
+        "vocab": {
+          ".": 0,
+          "Ċ": 1,
+          "ĊĊ": 2,
+          ".ĊĊ": 3
+        },
+        "merges": ["Ċ Ċ", ". ĊĊ"]
+      },)") + kMiniCPM5PreTokenizer + R"(
+    })";
+
+    auto tokenizer = trtmc::CreateBpeTokenizer(tokenizer_json.data(), tokenizer_json.size(), false);
+    if (!tokenizer) {
+        std::cerr << "FAIL: check_newline_attachment: tokenizer was not created\n";
+        ++failures;
+        return;
+    }
+    check_ids(tokenizer->encode(".\n\n"), {3}, "check_newline_attachment");
+}
+
+// Multi-digit runs should be grouped into chunks of up to 3 digits
+// (\p{N}{1,3}), each its own pre-token, not left as one unbounded digit
+// run (the kLlama-misclassified behavior) and not split into individual
+// one-digit pre-tokens (the failure mode of a fix that scans for the
+// variant but couples digit-group size to the same winning step, which
+// does not carry the {1,3} grouping in this checkpoint's real regex).
+void check_digit_grouping() {
+    const std::string tokenizer_json = std::string(R"({
+      "model": {
+        "type": "BPE",
+        "vocab": {
+          "1": 0,
+          "5": 1,
+          "0": 2,
+          "15": 3,
+          "150": 4,
+          "1500": 5
+        },
+        "merges": ["1 5", "15 0", "150 0"]
+      },)") + kMiniCPM5PreTokenizer + R"(
+    })";
+
+    auto tokenizer = trtmc::CreateBpeTokenizer(tokenizer_json.data(), tokenizer_json.size(), false);
+    if (!tokenizer) {
+        std::cerr << "FAIL: check_digit_grouping: tokenizer was not created\n";
+        ++failures;
+        return;
+    }
+    // Correct (grouped by 3): ["150", "0"] -> ids {4, 2}.
+    // kLlama misclassification (unpatched bug): one ungrouped word "1500" -> {5}.
+    // Coupled/naive fix (digit_group taken from the same step as the
+    // variant, which for this checkpoint's real second step is 0): four
+    // one-digit words -> {0, 1, 2, 2}.
+    check_ids(tokenizer->encode("1500"), {4, 2}, "check_digit_grouping");
+}
+
+// Synthetic fixture: two Split steps that each classify to a different,
+// non-kLlama variant. Not a real checkpoint shape -- this exercises the
+// ambiguous-classification guard rather than reproducing a reported bug.
+void check_ambiguous_variants_throw() {
+    const std::string tokenizer_json = R"({
+      "model": {
+        "type": "BPE",
+        "vocab": {"a": 0},
+        "merges": []
+      },
+      "pre_tokenizer": {
+        "type": "Sequence",
+        "pretokenizers": [
+          {
+            "type": "Split",
+            "pattern": {"Regex": "[^(\\s)]+"},
+            "behavior": "Isolated",
+            "invert": false
+          },
+          {
+            "type": "Split",
+            "pattern": {"Regex": "[^\\r\\n\\p{L}\\p{N}]?\\p{L}+"},
+            "behavior": "Isolated",
+            "invert": false
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    })";
+
+    bool threw = false;
+    try {
+        trtmc::CreateBpeTokenizer(tokenizer_json.data(), tokenizer_json.size(), false);
+    } catch (const std::runtime_error&) {
+        threw = true;
+    }
+    if (!threw) {
+        std::cerr
+            << "FAIL: check_ambiguous_variants_throw: expected std::runtime_error, none thrown\n";
+        ++failures;
+    }
+}
+
+} // namespace
+
+int main() {
+    check_newline_attachment();
+    check_digit_grouping();
+    check_ambiguous_variants_throw();
+    return failures == 0 ? 0 : 1;
+}