Seven arraigned on drug charges after Italian café raids

Seven arraigned on drug charges after Italian café raids

  December 12, 2010    Dapper_Don

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Seven people, including a man who was once indirectly linked to the murder of a Montreal police officer, appeared in court Friday where they were charged in connection with this week’s raids on a dozen Italian cafés.
Generoso Schiavone, 31, of Montreal was one of two people, out of the seven, who were held for a bail hearing during a hearing at the Montreal courthouse Friday afternoon.
Prosecutor David Simon opposed the release of both Schiavone and another man Panagiotis Mitrou, 44, of Montreal, while consenting to release the other five people on a series of conditions.
Schiavone will have to seek bail on Tuesday in part because of a serious criminal record that includes a 52-month sentence he received in 2003 in connection with a series of armed robberies committed in Montreal and Ottawa in 2002. At least one of those robberies was carried out with Stéphane Boucher, a man who killed Montreal police Constable Benoit L’Écuyer, on Feb. 28, 2002.
Schiavone was in a car Boucher was driving when he sped through a radar trap, led police on a brief chase and then exchanged gunfire with L’Écuyer, fatally shooting the constable. Boucher was later found guilty of murdering the constable and is serving a life sentence.
On Friday, Schiavone was charged with four of the 16 charges filed in connection with a series of raids carried out on Thursday by the Montreal police, Sûreté du Québec and RCMP in a dozen Italian cafés in northeastern Montreal.
Schiavone is charged with possession of heroin, cocaine and marijuana for the purposes of trafficking.
Schiavone and Mitrou are believed to have been in possession of large quantities of heroin as the Montreal police investigated a network that supplied its customers through a system of codes sent through pagers. Mitrou was also ordered, by Quebec Court Judge Jean-Paul Braun, to be held in custody until a bail hearing on Tuesday. Courts in Canada do not take heroin trafficking lightly. Biagio Marabella, 39, of Dorval Island, the alleged ringleader in the network, was granted a conditional release during his brief appearance before Braun. As part of his conditions, Marabella had to make a $3,000 deposit, agree to respect a curfew and to turn over his passport within 48 hours of his release.
According to a source close to the investigation, it appeared the money generated by the network’s drugs sales allegedly flowed to Marabella.
On Thursday, Commander Denis Mainville, head of the Montreal police organized crime squad, described the alleged ringleader of the network as someone who was tied to the Mafia in Montreal.
According to the news website RueFrontenac.com, Marabella is the cousin of Mario (Skinny) Marabella, a man with ties to the Rizzuto Clan who disappeared in December 2008. Police believe Mario Marabella was abducted on Dec. 4, 2008, at a gas station on Highway 440 in Laval’s Val des Brises district when he was grabbed and forced into a minivan. His vehicle, a pale grey Acura MDX, was later found, in flames, at the intersection of Gouin Blvd. and Lambert St. in Montreal. He has not been seen since.


http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Seven+arraigned+drug+charges+after+Italian+caf%c3%a9+raids/3960364/story.html#ixzz17vYf2JM1