Oct 17 2008
Ailing Mafia boss walks free
Crown took easy way out, crime writer says
MONTREAL – Nicolo Rizzuto sat through his sentencing hearing yesterday with the patient look of a man who knew he would be sleeping in his own bed for the first time in nearly two years.
The 84-year-old Mafia boss leaned forward in his chair in the prisoner’s dock of the Montreal courthouse and stared at his hands as Quebec Court Judge Jean-Pierre Bonin accepted a carefully arranged plea deal that was months in the making.
Despite being named as a leader of a criminal organization that bears his surname and described by the RCMP as “one of the pinnacles of organized crime in this country,” Rizzuto was given no more jail time but, rather, three years of probation for accepting large wads of suspicious cash at his headquarters while he and other leaders in the Montreal Mafia were investigated over four years.
Rizzuto pleaded guilty to being in possession of the proceeds of crime and a related gangsterism charge in a deal that allowed him to sidestep more serious charges of drug trafficking and extortion.
The charges against Rizzuto and some 90 others were filed in 2006 at the conclusion of Project Colisee, a huge police operation probing the most powerful Mafia organization in Canada.
Rizzuto received the lightest sentence of the six named leaders, in part because of his age and failing health, said prosecutor Yvan Poulin. The nearly two years that Rizzuto spent behind bars awaiting the outcome of his case was also a factor.
Defence lawyer Loris Cavaliere produced letters from doctors attesting to a respiratory problem Rizzuto has with his left lung and another ailment that required surgery last year.
“Sentences areimposedbased on the evidence that is gathered, not on somebody’s reputation,” Mr. Poulin said, defending the sentence outside court.
“In this case, Mr. Rizzuto– I know he’s reputed as [being] the boss of the Mafia in Montreal — but the evidence that was gathered by the RCMP during the four years of the investigation didn’t show that.”
Mr. Poulin added that not being able to prove the origins of cash Rizzuto was caught handling 76 times on cameras that were hidden in the Club Social Consenza was an obstacle in negotiating a tougher sentence.
Mr. Cavaliere said he expected his client would be leaving the Montreal Detention Centre last night.
Rizzuto is the father of Vito Rizzuto, 62, named as the “Godfather” of the Montreal Mafia. The younger Rizzuto is serving a 10-year sentence in the United States for the 1981 murders of three New York City mobsters.
During Project Colisee, police gathered evidence that Nicolo Rizzuto and three of the other five men who were sentenced yesterday ran the organization as a committee in his son’s absence.
They had the “moral authority” over “an organization that is commonly referred to as the Mafia,” Mr. Poulin said.
Rizzuto’s son-in-law, Paolo Renda, 69, was sentenced to the equivalent of a six-year sentence on the same two charges as Rizzuto, with additional weapons offences for guns found at his home. He has only two years left to serve and will likely be eligible for parole early next year.
Rocco Sollecito, 60, was sentenced to the equivalent of an eight-year prison term and has four years left.
Two other men — Francesco Arcadi, 55, and Francesco Del Balso, 38 — were sentenced to the equivalent of a 15-year prison term. With the time they have already spent behind bars factored in, they have 11 years left. Justice Bonin ordered that they serve at least half of that before they are eligible for parole.
The sentencing drew criticism for being desperately weak.
“The police officers working on the case did more time than Nick Rizzuto — and he’s making better money. The jail time should be at least as long as the investigation,” said Lee Lamothe, co-author of The Sixth Family, the biography of the Rizzuto clan.
“This was probably the best chance we’ve had — and may ever have — to actually take out the heart of a Mafia Family. They had the weapon, but the prosecutors took the easy way out. The Crown was holding four aces and betting like he had nothing,” he said.
“This tells the Mafia that they have little to fear from the Canadian justice system.”
Mr. Lamothe said the rules of the Mafia require underlings to accept longer sentences in order to protect the boss, likely accounting for discrepencies in the final plea arrangement.
As part of the deal, the government confiscated more than $2.8-million in cash seized during raids in 2006. Del Balso also consented to the confiscation of cash and assets worth more than $800,000.
Sentencing for a sixth defendant, Lorenzo Giordano, 45, was put off until Nov. 25, because he did not agree on what property the government would confiscate as part of the plea.
Ailing Mafia boss walks free – Canwest News Service, with files from National Post – Published: Friday, October 17, 2008 – This story was found at: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=886403
