Jan 17 2008
Suspected Mafia members opt for trials
MONTREAL – Five alleged leaders of the Montreal Mafia who have been in jail since November 2006 are opting to go directly to trial.
Nicolo Rizzuto, Paolo Renda, Rocco Sollecito, Francesco Arcadi and Lorenzo Giordano have chosen to skip their preliminary hearing.
The five men, who were arrested in a widespread police crackdown in Quebec, will have their trial date set Feb. 25.
Federal Crown prosecutor Yvan Poulin said today the men face a total of 105 additional charges, including extortion, illegal betting, and importing drugs and weapons.
“When we divulged the evidence, we gave them everything we had and the accused have surely analyzed it and decided there was no interest in proceeding with a preliminary hearing,” Poulin said in a telephone interview.
“They’ve renounced their right to hear the evidence during a preliminary hearing and to their right to convince a judge that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a trial.”
The new charges include more specific criminal accusations stemming from the vast investigation that spanned a four-year period between 2002 and 2006.
From nearly a million hours of electronic surveillance, the Crown is using about 5,000 to 6,000 hours for its case.
New court documents allege cocaine-importing conspiracies that had ramifications in Montreal, Laval, Boucherville, Toronto and other places in Canada, as well as in the United States, Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
As for the sixth presumed leader, Francesco Del Balso, he accepted before Christmas to be tried alone on the same charges as the other five.
For the 38 others who are accused of being linked to the drug importation ring working out of Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Aiport, their preliminary hearing will begin on Feb. 4 at a large courtroom in northeast Montreal built specifically for mega-trials.
All were rounded up during a large police sweep on Montreal’s Italian Mafia in late 2006.
During the raid, which was dubbed Projet Colisee, police were able to seize 800 kilograms of cocaine, 40 kilograms of marijuana, $3.5 million cash and $3 million worth of real estate.
Suspected Mafia members opt for trials - Jan 17, 2008 05:30 PM - THE CANADIAN PRESS - http://www.thestar.com/News/article/295098
