For the second time in less than six months, police in Montreal have
struck hard at the leadership of the Mafia in the city in yet another
investigation that targeted one of its alleged leaders.
Liborio "Pancho" Cuntrera, 47, was in Italy early Wednesday morning
when members of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit set out to
make arrests in the third and final phase of Project Clemenza. The
RCMP-led investigation had to be put on hold in 2011 because the
Mounties uncovered evidence in the murder of Salvatore Montagna, a New
York-based mob boss who tried to wrest control of the Mafia in Montreal
from the Rizzuto organization. Montagna was murdered in a town just east
of Montreal, on Nov. 24, 2011, after a coalition he tried to organize
fell apart.
An RCMP spokesperson told reporters that 15 people were
targeted in Wednesday’s operation and that the investigation probed drug
smuggling and drug trafficking.
The four indictments that were filed reveal Project Clemenza targeted
a group that was loyal to the Rizzuto organization and another group,
formally led by Giuseppe "Ponytail" De Vito who died of cyanide
poisoning in a federal penitentiary in 2013, who opposed theRizzutos.
Cuntrera has long been described by police sources as a potential
young leader in the Rizzuto organization. His father, Agostino, remained
loyal to the Rizzuto organization when it was attacked in 2010 and
2011. That loyalty is widely believed to have cost the elder Cuntrera
his life. He was shot, in June 2010, outside the business he ran in
St-Léonard.
Last year, LCN, the French-language news cable station, aired a
series of reports alleging that Liborio Cuntrera was part of a
six-member committee that had assumed control of the Mafia in Montreal
after Vito Rizzuto — a man who had maintained control over the Mafia in
this city for three decades — died of natural causes in December 2013.
LCN also reported that Rizzuto’s son Leonardo, 46, and Stefano
Sollecito, 48, were part of that committee. The younger Rizzuto and
Sollecito were arrested in November in a drug trafficking investigation
led by the Sûreté du Québec. At a press conference following the
November arrests the SQ alleged both men were leaders in the Mafia.
According to sources familiar with Wednesday’s operation, Cuntrera
had been vacationing in Italy for a while and made contact with the
RCMP on Wednesday. One source said Cuntrera has agreed to turn himself
in to the RCMP when he returns to Canada. The RCMP arrested 13 of 15
people Wednesday. One is still being sought and Cuntrera is in Italy.
Charges reflect a lengthy delay
The charges filed against the 47-year-old Laval resident on Wednesday
reflect the lengthy delay the RCMP had to deal with in Project
Clemenza. One charge alleges he trafficked in cocaine on May 17, 2011.
Another two allege that he and Marco Pizzi, 46, of Montreal North,
trafficked in cocaine and conspired to do the same between Sept. 28 and
Oct. 6, 2011.
A different indictment appears to involve some of the people who
sided with De Vito in the failed attempt to overtake the Rizzuto
organization. Giuseppe "Closure" Colapelle, 38, a man who was killed in
2012, is named as a non-indicted co-conspirator in the indictment as is
Alessandro Succapane, a man who was revealed to be a close associate of
De Vito’s during a previous RCMP investigation.
Ten people named in that indictment are alleged to have been part of a
conspiracy to import and traffic in cocaine between Feb. 18 and Dec.
21, 2011.
“The network imported cocaine through the United States and used its
contacts in the commercial ground transport industry,” RCMP spokesperson
Corporal Camille Habel said Wednesday. “The investigation demonstrated
that this (network) transported large quantities of cocaine. The
American and Canadian authorities have seized more than 220 kilos of
cocaine and placed their hands on (more than $2 million).”
One man alleged to be part of the group of 10 named in the indictment
is Martino Caputo, a 42-year-old man who is currently serving a 12-year
prison term in Kingston, Ont. for his role in a cocaine smuggling
conspiracy to bring tons of the narcotic into Canada. Caputo also faces
charges in Ontario related to a murder carried out in that province back
in 2012.
Only a dozen of the people named in the four indictments appeared
before a judge at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday. Federal
prosecutor Marc Cigana said the Crown objected to seven of them being
released without first having a bail hearing. Below are descriptions of a
few of the seven who remain detained:
• Erasmo Crivello, 36, a drug trafficker with known ties to the
Rizzuto organization. In February 2004, Crivello was sentenced to a
three-year prison term for holding three people against their will and
aggravated assault. According to decisions made by the Parole Board of
Canada, Crivello hired a group of men to collect $60,000 that he
believed was stolen from him. Three men were held against their will and
beaten while Crivello watched and gave orders. One of the victims
suffered injuries that required surgery.
Hansley Lee Joseph in 2007
• Hansley Joseph, 36, a well-known member of a Montreal street gang
who received a two-year prison term for his role in a drug trafficking
network that operated in northern Montreal. The case brought against
Joseph and about two dozen other men in 2005 was significant because it
represented one of the first times in Canada that gangsterism charges
were laid against street gang members. According to a court decision
made in the case in 2007, Joseph was part of a group known as the “Dope
Squad” and frequently supplied cocaine to a group of drug dealers who
terrorized Pelletier Ave. a street north of Henri Bourassa Blvd. in
Montreal North.
• Frank Iaconetti, 48, has served time for a previous conspiracy to
smuggle cocaine into Canada. In 1999, he pleaded guilty in a U.S.
District Court in Massachusetts to being part of a conspiracy to
distribute the narcotic. According to court documents filed in that
case, on March 15, 1998 Iaconetti brought $250,000 in cash to undercover
agents for what was supposed to be a down payment for 100 kilograms of
cocaine destined for Canada. When he was sentenced in 1999, a judge was
told there was very little evidence that Iaconetti knew much about the
actual drug transaction. At the time, Iaconetti said he agreed to
deliver the money to cover debts he accumulated because of a serious
addiction to gambling that also prompted him to request that he be
banned from the Montreal casino.
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