A former Sûreté du Québec investigator appeared both surprised and upset with a judge’s decision that will see him spend six months behind bars for defrauding his own police force.

Nicolas Landry, 43, clearly did not anticipate the possibility that the sentence delivered by Quebec Court Judge André Perreault on Thursday at the Montreal courthouse would include jail time.

His lawyer, Walid Hijazi, said as much when he asked the judge to “make an exception” for Landry and delay the sentence for a week.

Perreault rejected the request outright and criticized Hijazi for not having asked for a delay before he delivered his decision and for having assumed his client wouldn’t be jailed.

Perreault sentenced Landry to a six-month prison term to be followed by one year of probation.

During sentence arguments in January, prosecutor Patrick Cardinal requested a one-year prison term while Hijazi argued for a sentence Landry could serve in the community by carrying out community service and by paying a $42,000 fine — the equivalent of what he was estimated to have defrauded out of his employers.

On Thursday, Hijazi asked Perreault for “less than a minute” for Landry to explain why he preferred waiting a week before reporting to a detention centre. The lawyer said the residence of Landry’s sister-in-law was damaged in a recent fire and that his client could explain why the delay was necessary. But Perreault said Hijazi was too late, as he could have delayed delivering the sentence if Hijazi had simply asked beforehand.

“I hope one day I can explain this to you,” Landry said as he was handcuffed and taken into custody.

“Unbelievable,” Landry uttered before he was taken away.

Landry is the son of Jacques Landry, a retired member of the SQ who is well known in police circles. More than two decades ago, he created a new way for SQ officers to conduct interrogations.

During sentencing arguments, Jacques Landry said his son’s problems at the SQ began when fellow police officers harassed him over a book the father had published about investigation techniques. The father argued that if his son merited a sentence, he had already served it because of the media attention his case has drawn.

Perreault found Landry guilty of fraud last year. Landry was accused of lying to the SQ by saying he was too depressed to do police work while he was busy running a travel agency and expanding it by acquiring its competitors.

He stopped working for the SQ’s major crimes division in 2009 and continued to collect a salary while claiming to be sick for years. But, for several reasons, the period during which he was found guilty of committing fraud was limited to between May 22, 2014 and Nov. 20, 2014.

Perreault said he couldn’t understand why Hijazi suggested his client should pay a $42,000 fine instead of jail when, during Landry’s trial, it was established that the former police investigator declared bankruptcy in 2016. He also stopped receiving any form of salary from the SQ after he was convicted.

“The court is of the conviction that Mr. Landry does not have the capacity to pay the fine proposed by the defence (and) that the fine is not a fair sanction under the circumstances,” Perreault said as he read from his 21-page decision.

Landry has filed for an appeal of Perreault’s decision to convict him.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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A West Island resident with a long criminal record is among three Montreal-area men named as suspects this week in the recent murder of a Ontario-based Hells Angel who was killed in Mississauga.

Marckens Vilme, 28, of the Pierrefonds borough, was arrested Wednesday along with Brandon Reyes, 24. After being transported to Toronto, Vilme was charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Michael Deabaitua-Schulde, a 32-year-old Hells Angel who was with the gang’s Niagara chapter. Initially, the Peel Regional police identified Reyes as Jonathan Martinez-Reyes, but it appears he gave them a false name at the time of his arrest. Brandon Reyes is charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

According to a statement issued by the Peel Regional Police, Deabaitua-Schulde was shot near a commercial plaza in Mississauga on Monday at 11:18 a.m. “and later succumbed to his injuries.” The release also noted the Montreal police “is supporting us in our investigation.”

In 2014, Reyes was among four men arrested as suspects in a series of armed robberies carried out in Montreal. Three years later, Reyes pleaded guilty to several charges in the case. On June 13, 2017, he was sentenced to an overall six-year prison term but, with time served factored into the sentence, he was left with only 14 months.

During a news conference this week, the Peel Regional police said both Vilme and Reyes “are believed to be members of organized crime.” According to La Presse, Vilme has had past ties to the Ruff Ryders, a street gang based in the West Island that has operated with support from the Hells Angels for years.

In 2010, Vilme, a former star football player as a young teenager, was charged with an attempted murder investigated by Montreal police and, while he was under arrest, they searched a home in Vaudreuil-Dorion while investigators were trying to track down an Uzi-style automatic firearm. The attempted murder charge was dropped on Sept. 3, 2010.

In June 2011, Vilme pleaded guilty to a long series of charges, including cocaine trafficking and several counts related to firearms, and was sentenced to a 21-month prison term.

He was out on parole on that sentence when, on Nov. 23, 2012, he was pulled over by police who noticed a car he was in, along with two other people, was driving erratically in St-Zotique. While police officers dealt with the two other men, Vilme jumped behind the wheel of the car and drove off. He lost control of it as police officers continued the pursuit the vehicle crashed. During the pursuit police noticed Vilme had tossed a bag out of the car. They recovered the bag with a loaded handgun inside.

Vilme pleaded guilty in that case as well and was sentenced to an overall 40-month prison term.

At the time of his arrest on Wednesday, Vilme was on probation as part of a sentence he received, on Nov. 28, for having threatened a man, in Montreal on July 7, 2018.  He also has an assault case pending at the Montreal courthouse.

The Peel Regional police have also issued a Canada Wide Warrant for Joseph Pallotta, a 38-year-old Montreal resident also accused of first-degree murder in the biker’s death. Pallotta is described as, 5-foot-10, 245 pounds; he has a heavy build, brown eyes, and brown graying hair.

“Since Joseph Pallotta is considered armed and dangerous do not approach him. If you see him call 911 immediately,” the Peel Regional police stated in the release.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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A convicted murderer who managed to slip back into Canada a couple of years after he was deported is scheduled to be returned back to Barbados a second time after he settles a case at the Montreal courthouse where he is charged in connection with a series of armed robberies.

Details on James Craigwell’s plans for the near future are contained in a recent decision made by the Parole Board of Canada.

In 1994, Craigwell, now 45, received a life sentence after he was convicted of second-degree murder in the Dec. 4, 1993 death of Lincoln Ramsoondar, a 21-year-old man who was shot outside Vanier College in what is now the St-Laurent borough.

Craigwell’s family moved to Canada when he was a child but he never became a Canadian citizen. After he was granted full parole on his life sentence, in 2012, he was transferred to the custody of Canada Border Services Agency and was deported after being issued an order requiring that he inform Canadian authorities if he ever returned.

According to a written summary of the decision the board recently made to officially revoke his release, police have evidence to indicate Craigwell managed to return to Canada in September 2014 by using a false passport. The document was seized by police in 2017, when Craigwell and three other men were arrested as suspects in a series of holdups in bars and convenience stores as well as a home invasion in Lachine.

“During the post-suspension interview, you explained that you no longer have family in Barbados and that you experienced some adjustment problems at your return in your home country. Some years ago, when you learned that your pregnant partner was sick, you decided to come back to Canada. You did not inform Correctional Service of Canada or the Board because you feared being re-incarcerated. You supported yourself by working in fruit and vegetable harvesting during the summer and in a carwash in the winter,” the author of the summary wrote. Craigwell’s parole officers were unable to verify any of his claims.

Craigwell also told the parole board he became depressed early in 2017 after his brother died. He began using drugs to deal with his depression and, Craigwell told the board, that caused him to spiral into the life that led to his arrest in April 2017. He said he plans to plead guilty later this month to only some of the 52 charges he faces but that “99 per cent of information related to your charges do not concern yourself.”

According to court files, Craigwell has a court date scheduled for Tuesday and, during a previous date on Oct. 23, he indicated to the court that he would settle his case at a future date. Initially, Craigwell was charged with sexual assault in connection with the home invasion that was carried out in Lachine. That charge has since been dropped. The parole decision notes that the allegation involved how people who inside the home at the time “were inappropriately searched by the aggressors.”

A second deportation order to Barbados has been issued by Immigration Canada and Canada Border Services Agency has a warrant to arrest Craigwell if he is ever granted parole again in the future.

The three men who were arrested with Craigwell in 2017 have resolved their respective cases through a series of guilty pleas. On Feb. 22, Clayton Roach, 40, of Lasalle, admitted to playing a role in most, if not all, of the armed robberies and pleaded guilty to 22 charges in all. He received an overall sentence of 11 years.

Yossi Avadov, 25, pleaded guilty to 11 charges, including armed robbery, forcible confinement and conspiracy and was sentenced, in January 2018, to a nine-year prison term.

Vincent Parent Levesque, 25, of Laval, pleaded guilty, in November 2017, to participating in at least eight of the armed robberies and was also sentenced to a nine-year prison term.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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Five men are scheduled to have a hearing at the Montreal courthouse after they were ordered detained following their arrests in an investigation of a drug-trafficking ring with alleged ties to a biker gang.

The five men were among 18 rounded up on Thursday by the Montreal police as the result of an investigation dubbed Project Nightcap.

“The network was tied to outlaw biker gang members and operated mostly in Plateau Mont-Royal,” the Montreal police stated in a release.

Of those arrested, four women and five men made brief appearances Friday before a judge at the Montreal courthouse where they were charged with a series of offences related to cocaine and cannabis trafficking. All of the women were granted conditional releases but the five men were ordered to remain behind bars until they can have bail hearings. They are scheduled to return to court on Monday to fix a date for the bail hearings.

The alleged leader of the group, Yannick Gionet, 49, of Terrebonne, was arrested in 2015 in a similar investigation also conducted by the Montreal police. He pleaded pleaded guilty to a series of drug trafficking offences and was sentenced, on Dec. 16, 2015, to an overall prison term of 33 months.

Gionet can be seen in a photo, apparently posted in January to his Facebook page, with Jean-Guy Bourgouin, 52, a former member of the Rockers, a gang that worked for the Hells Angels during the biker gang war during the late 1990s. When Bourgouin was a member of the Rockers he was specifically assigned the Plateau Mont-Royal as an area the Hells Angels controlled in terms of drug trafficking. He was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in 2003 for the work he did for the Hells Angels. He hasn’t been charged with anything related to drug trafficking since, but in March 2015, a recording device secretly installed by police inside the former law offices of Loris Cavaliere captured a conversation the lawyer had with Bourgouin and two street gang leaders who were under investigation in Project Magot, a probe into how the Montreal Mafia, Hells Angels and some street gangs had teamed up to control drug trafficking in Montreal. Cavaliere was going over the evidence police had already gathered at that point against Gregory Woolley, 47, a former member of the Rockers, who was the key middleman between the three organized crime groups.

Two of the men who were arrested in Project Nightcap on Thursday — Gilles St-Armand, 51, of Montreal and Jules Brisebois, a 70-year-old resident of Plateau Mont-Royal — were charged in the same drug-trafficking case as Gionet back in 2015.

St-Armand only recently finished serving the 6-month prison term he received last year after he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and conspiracy to do the same. Brisebois pleaded guilty in the same case, in 2015, and received an overall sentence of 27 months.

The other two men who were ordered detained on Friday are Gérald Fetherstone, 66, and Michel Perreault, 49, both of Montreal.

The Montreal police carried out 21 search warrants in cars and homes in Montreal, Laval and Terrebonne during Project Nightcap. In all they seized 300 grams of cocaine, 2,000 grams of marijuana and more than $18,000.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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A 38-year-old St-Léonard resident who was being sought by Ontario police in connection with the murder of a Hells Angel near Toronto last week turned himself in to the Montreal police over the weekend.

Joseph Pallotta made a brief appearance before a judge at the Montreal courthouse on Monday, a day after he surrendered himself to Montreal police officers at the north operations centre early Sunday morning.

Pallotta appeared via a video linkup with a detention centre and he was informed that he will likely be transferred quickly to a courthouse in Brampton, Ont., where he is wanted on a warrant alleging he was part of the fatal shooting of Michael Deabaitua-Schulde, a 32-year-old Hells Angel with the gang’s Niagara chapter. The victim was shot near a commercial plaza in Mississauga on March 11.

Pallotta is charged with first-degree murder in the case but he might also face a gangsterism charge and another count alleging he set fire to the getaway vehicle used in the shooting.

He was placed under arrest on a warrant that allowed the Montreal police to hold him for six days but, according to what defence lawyer Serge Lamontagne said in court, the Peel Regional police were in Montreal and were waiting for the judge to sign a document that would allow them to bring Pallotta across the provincial border for a court appearance on Tuesday.

Pallotta said nothing during his very brief court appearance.

He and two other Montreal residents have been charged in connection with Deabaitua-Schulde’s death. Last week, Marckens Vilme, 28, of the Pierrefonds borough was also charged with first-degree murder and Brandon Reyes, 24, of Montreal, was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

In December, a judge in Valleyfield issued a warrant for Pallotta’s arrest after he failed to show up in court in a case where he is charged with identity fraud and using, possessing or trafficking a forged document.

His criminal record includes convictions for marijuana trafficking, in 2003, and the unauthorized possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm, in 2004.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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The shooting in St-Léonard that resulted in the deaths of two men tied to organized crime just before Christmas was the result of a drug burn that went wrong, according to a Montreal police investigator.

Det.-Sgt. Christina Vlachos testified on Monday at the bail hearing for Fodil-Abderhamane Lakehal, 21, of Laval — the only person charged so far in the deaths.

On the morning of Dec. 24, Montreal police received 911 calls about two men shot dead inside an apartment building on Jean-Talon St. E.

When police arrived, they found the bodies of Davis Arbour, 38, who had ties to the Hells Angels, and Marc (Ocean) Hilary Dasilma, 41, a street gang leader, on the floor of the entrance to Arbour’s apartment.

Vlachos told Quebec Court Judge Flavia Longo that Lakehal’s sister was married to Dasilma.

Minutes after the shooting, the investigator said, Lakehal told his sister her husband was dead and he had been killed by accident by a man known by the street name “Solo.”

Lakehal’s sister then called 911 to report her husband had been killed and told police where his body could be found.

Vlachos said “Solo” is believed to be Gabriel Jasmin, 34, who has a lengthy criminal record. He has not been charged in connection with the the homicides.

The judge was shown a series of videos recorded by surveillance cameras inside the lobby of the apartment building and at nearby businesses.

Vlachos said the videos show that Lakehal went to the apartment building with Dasilma where they met with Jasmin inside the lobby before the shooting took place.

They gained entry to the building thanks to Jasmin’s wife, Kim Savard Pichette, 27, who lived roughly 500 metres from Arbour.

The footage shows how a young woman, believed to be Pichette, convinced a man standing in the lobby to open the door for her.

Once inside the lobby, the young woman could be seen using her smartphone. Seconds later, the woman opens the door for a man who is believed to be Jasmin. Minutes after that, Jasmin is seen opening the door for Dasilma and Lakehal.

Savard has been charged with robbing Arbour. (She was to have a bail hearing Monday but her lawyer asked that it be postponed.)

Vlachos said that following his arrest, Lakehal confirmed he is in the video recorded in the lobby — but that he gave conflicting versions of what happened.

In one version, Lakehal said he merely believed he was accompanying his brother-in-law to purchase drugs. But in the elevator, Dasilma and Jasmin began to cover their faces. It was only then, Lakehal told the investigator, that Dasilma told him the were going to rob a drug dealer.

“He felt it was too late to get out,” Vlachos said.

The detective said Arbour’s wife was found hiding in the kitchen when police arrived. She told police that someone had broken into the apartment and that she heard: “You know what we are looking for!”

Then a man grabbed her cellphone, she told police. She managed to call 911 from a land line after shots were fired.

Vlachos said police have information that Jasmin pointed a gun at Arbour while Dasilma searched the apartment.

At one point, Vlachos said, Arbour grabbed Dasilma and Jasmin is believed to have shot Arbour three times and Dasilma once.

Lakehal told the police he was outside the apartment the whole time and that he tried to carry his brother-in-law out but found him too heavy to lift.

Vlachos said Jasmin’s DNA was found on a gold chain found in the stairway of the apartment building.

She said Jasmin was arrested in January for an unrelated offence and is currently detained in the other file. Prosecutor Sarah Sylvain Laporte said that homicide charges will be filed against Jasmin in the near future.

Lawyers in the case are scheduled to make closing arguments to Longo on Tuesday.

pcherry@postmedia.com

A 26-year-old Montreal man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter after admitting he pulled a knife out of his own arm during a drunken downtown brawl and used it to kill the man who stabbed him.

Kenneth Oteng entered the plea at the Montreal courthouse on Tuesday in the death of Antony St-Jean Lamothe, 24, on May 14, 2017.

Two men who were with him at the time pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of aggravated assault.

While Oteng remains detained, the two others — Benjamin Gourd-Morris, 21, and Jeremiah Owusu, 22 — are free until Quebec Court Justice François Dadour makes a decision on their sentences at a later date.

According to a statement of facts read into the court record by prosecutor Laurent-Alexandre Duclos Bélanger, the victim was killed following an argument between two groups of men that started after Bar BLVD44 on St-Laurent Blvd. had closed after 3 a.m.

“All of the protagonists were intoxicated to some degree by alcohol,” Bélanger said.

Lamothe’s group included his brother and a man named Yves-Roby Pharaon, 23, who pulled a knife while the men argued outside the bar.

“On the victim’s side, Yves-Roby Pharaon was the person who appeared to be the most aggressive, as was demonstrated” in images captured on a surveillance camera, Bélanger said.

The argument continued as both groups moved toward Sherbrooke St. and at one point Oteng removed his shirt and his jacket and was naked from the waist up while he shouted at the other group.

According to witnesses, at that point Oteng and Lamothe became the most aggressive among the eight men. Pharaon was not charged in the stabbing but his knife somehow ended up in Lamothe’s hands.

Lamothe stabbed Oteng in the left arm, and the knife remained stuck there — until Oteng pulled it out and pursued Lamothe and his brother as they tried to flee.

Oteng stabbed Lamothe once and then continued to pursue him. When he caught up to him again, at the intersection of Clark and Sherbrooke Sts., he stabbed him four more times.

Owusu and Gourd-Morris admitted Tuesday they assaulted Lamothe after he had been stabbed the first time but both said they were unaware Oteng had a knife during the fight.

Bélanger noted no one from either group called for an ambulance. Instead, a witness to the start of the fight alerted police. Officers arrived five minutes later and found Lamothe after he had been stabbed.

Lamothe was taken to the Montreal General Hospital by ambulance. He died shortly after 4 a.m.

An autopsy revealed he was drunk at the time of the stabbing, and traces of methamphetamine and cannabis were found in his blood.

Gourd-Morris and Owusu were arrested at Notre-Dame Hospital, where Owusu sought treatment for an injury to his hand he sustained during the fight.

Oteng surrendered to police on May 16, 2017. Police noted a five-centimetre scar on his arm that had been closed with stitches.

The case returns to court in late June for a sentencing hearing.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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A 21-year-old Laval resident will find out on Friday whether he will be granted bail in a case in which he faces two counts of manslaughter in the deaths of two men who were shot just before Christmas in St-Léonard.

Fodil-Abderhamane Lakehal is the only person officially charged so far in the deaths of Davis Arbour, 38, and Marc Hilary “Ocean” Dasilma, 41 — two men who were on the opposite ends of what the Montreal police believe was a “drug burn,” a street term for the robbery of a drug dealer.

Late in the morning of Dec. 24, one woman and three men, including Lakehal and Dasilma (Lakehal’s brother-in-law), were recorded on a surveillance camera as they entered an apartment building on Jean-Talon St. E., where Arbour lived. Minutes later, Arbour and Dasilma were both shot and investigators have evidence the shooting was the result of an attempt to rob Arbour of either cash or drugs.

According to evidence presented at Lakehal’s bail hearing, when police officers arrived, it was evident someone had throughly searched Arbour’s spacious 10th-floor apartment but had failed to find the more than $19,000 in cash, kilogram of cocaine, 6,000 speed pills, 1,300 Cialis pills and other drugs. Arbour, a man with ties to the Hells Angels, had apparently stashed his drugs and cash inside a filing cabinet that the would-be robbers ignored during their search.

Included among evidence gathered by investigators is a statement from Arbour’s girlfriend, who hid inside an armoire during the attempted robbery. She said that Arbour used drugs often and that when he got high he liked to show off his cash and drugs. She also told investigators that two weeks before the shooting, Arbour hired prostitutes and got into an argument with their pimp, or pimps. Police believe that might have been the moment when organized crime figures learned that Arbour had cash and large quantities of drugs inside his apartment.

In her statement, Arbour’s girlfriend said she heard someone yell to Arbour that he knew what they were looking for before Dasilma, a street gang leader, began searching the apartment. Police also believe Arbour grabbed Dasilma at one point in his search and that Gabriel (Solo) Jasmin, 34, a man with a lengthy criminal record, shot both of them as they struggled, killing Dasilma by accident. During the bail hearing, prosecutor Sarah Sylvain Laporte said that homicide charges will soon be filed against Jasmin, who is detained in an unrelated case.

While police have little evidence that Lakehal, who admitted he was present when both men were killed, was involved in the actual shooting, Laporte argued before Quebec Court Judge Flavia Longo on Tuesday that he should remain detained because the goal of his trip to the apartment was to carry out an armed robbery. Laporte said Lakehal should have had reason to suspect that violence could have broken out.

The prosecutor also argued that Lakehal poses a potential flight risk because he has dual citizenship in Canada and Algeria, a country he travelled to and spent several weeks in last year.

Defence lawyer Richard Tawil argued that a member of the public, well-informed in the facts of the case, would not lose faith in the justice system if Lakehal were granted bail while he remains charged.

“The best evidence (that he isn’t a flight risk) is that he didn’t flee before (he was arrested two months after the shooting,” Tawil said while noting there were signs in January that the Montreal police knew who had entered the apartment building. Lakehal was first arrested in the case late in February.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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The Quebec Court of Appeal has decided that the Superior Court judge who sentenced Richard Henry Bain for the 2012 election night shooting made a fair decision.

In a unanimous ruling delivered Wednesday afternoon, five appellate judges decided not to change the decision made by Justice Guy Cournoyer in November 2016 to set the period of parole ineligibility attached to Bain’s life sentence at 20 years. The decision means Bain, who is currently 68, will not be eligible for full parole until 2032.

On the night of Sept. 4, 2012, Bain drove to the Metropolis, a concert hall where the Parti Québécois was celebrating its victory in the election held earlier that day. As he would later tell a psychiatrist following his arrest, he was ready to shoot as many separatists as he could that night and had plans to set the building on fire.

Denis Blanchette was killed in an attack at the Metropolis on Sept. 4, 2012, during Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois’s victory speech on the night of the Quebec provincial election.

Bain’s van was loaded with several firearms and ammunition, but the semi-automatic rifle he was carrying jammed after he fired a single shot. Unfortunately, the shot killed Denis Blanchette and wounded Dave Courage, two men who were working at Metropolis. Bain also managed to set fire to a staircase behind the club.

While two police officers were pursuing him, Bain tried to shoot one with a 9 mm pistol, but the firearm didn’t go off because he had failed to load a bullet in the chamber.

Following a long trial held in 2016, a jury convicted Bain on one count of second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.

“The paramount aggravating factor in this case is the political nature of the offences, which are an assault on our democratic process,” Cournoyer wrote in his sentence decision on Nov. 18, 2016.

Mourners gather on Sept. 10, 2012 in Montreal for the funeral of Denis Blanchette, the stagehand who was killed by Richard Henry Bain.

The judge noted Bain headed to the club, with his rifle in hand, just as then premier-elect Pauline Marois was about to make her victory speech. After he was arrested and detained, Bain somehow uploaded a recording to a Facebook page stating that his intention all along was to prevent Marois from making her speech.

The Crown asked that Bain’s parole ineligibility be set at 25 years, the maximum, while defence lawyer Alan Guttman asked for the minimum, 10 years. Cournoyer set Bain’s parole ineligibility at 20 years while noting Bain had “failed to convince the court by balance of probabilities that his mental condition should be considered a mitigating factor.” Neither side was satisfied with the decision and both filed appeals asking that Bain’s parole ineligibility be changed.

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While all five of the Quebec Court of Appeal judges agreed there is no reason to change Cournoyer’s decision, they were split 3-2 in their opinions on how Cournoyer forgot to ask the jury for a recommendation on a sentence before they were discharged. The two dissenting judges were also very critical of how Cournoyer reached his decision, but they still felt there was no reason to change it. For example, the dissenting judges felt Cournoyer did not address what type of person Bain was before the shooting. Bain had no previous criminal record and had held down a regular job for years before he began to experience mental health problems.

“I’m a little disappointed. I’m going to read it carefully because I don’t understand it,” Guttman said on Wednesday in reference to what the dissenting judges wrote.

He said he will discuss the matter with Bain before he decides if he will take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

pcherry@postmedia.com

When a probation officer made two spot-check phone calls to Anita Obodzinski around midnight on July 28, 2018, she couldn’t answer the phone because she had “overdosed” on Tylenol after spraining her ankle a week earlier.

Obodzinski, 54, vaguely remembers getting up for both calls, 20 minutes apart, but couldn’t make it to the phone in time. She was in a “pain euphoria” and “probably not even lucid.”

As for another two calls she missed in the early hours of Sept. 2, it’s because she was too tired from living “on Moscow time.”

Though she never left Montreal herself, her daughter had been in Russia from Aug. 18-28. Obodzinski had adjusted her schedule accordingly. Five days after her daughter’s return, she was still exhausted from the experience and, as a result, in a deep sleep when the phone rang.

These are the reasons Obodzinski, serving house arrest for defrauding an elderly woman, gave a judge in mid-January to explain why she had breached her conditions, which included answering all phone calls by correctional services staff.

Quebec Court Judge Dennis Galiatsatos is expected to decide Thursday whether Obodzinski can continue to serve her sentence in the community or if she should serve prison time.

In a decision rendered in early February, the judge did not find much merit in Obodzinski’s arguments.

Her explanations were unclear, contradictory and at times patently incredible.”

“Her explanations were unclear, contradictory and at times patently incredible,” Galiatsatos wrote, ultimately rejecting her claims on their “inherent incoherence and unrealistic nature.”

On Jan. 9, 2018, Obodzinski and her husband, Arthur Trzciakowski, 51, pleaded guilty to having defrauded Veronika Piela out of her life savings when the victim was 89 years old.

In 2013, Obodzinski obtained a protection mandate that allowed her to take control of Piela’s life, steal more than $474,000 from her and force the victim out of her home. She pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, mischief and knowingly using forged documents. Piela died in December 2016.

Obodzinski received a sentence of two years less a day that she could serve in the community. It involved a one-year period of house arrest to be followed by another year where she is required to respect a curfew. The period of house arrest was frozen in November because of the current case.

Veronika Piela is seen in this file photo from December 2015.

During a sentence hearing for the breaches on March 12, Obodzinski told Galiatsatos her family was only managing to make ends meet. She said she had inherited the home they live in and she was selling “vintage collections” of clothing and jewelry she inherited from her mother.

She said she was working as a real-estate consultant but had yet to be paid for recent work because she is supposed to be paid by commission.

“This worst-case scenario… placed behind bars, they would not be able to survive. They would lose the house,” she said of her husband and teenage daughter. “There’s no way. Nobody would be able to pay those bills.”

In a joint recommendation, both sides in the case suggested Obodzinski merely see the period of house arrest remaining from her 2018 sentence extended by roughly two months.

Crown prosecutor Annick Pelletier also suggested her conditions be loosened so Obodzinski could take her daughter to school in the morning and to horseback riding lessons on Saturdays.

Obodzinski said a child therapist from Boston recommended the lessons as therapy after her daughter was “bullied” by other students at her private school while her criminal trial was covered by the media.

Galiatsatos said he was appalled by the joint submission.

The court is extremely troubled, perturbed and shaken by this joint recommendation.”

“You’re basically asking for a more lenient sentence than the (original one) after the court has decided she breached her (conditions) twice,” he said. “The court is extremely troubled, perturbed and shaken by this joint recommendation (related to a case where Obodzinski admitted to) obstructing justice involving false documents in court in order to deprive a 90-year-old lady of her home moments before her death.”

The judge also said he wanted both sides to convince him how allowing Obodzinski to continue her house arrest “would not bring the administration of justice into disrepute or otherwise be contrary to the public’s interest.”

Galiatsatos is somewhat bound by a precedent set by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2016 in cases involving joint submissions on a sentence. But the judge noted he was aware of the precedent when he said he was shocked by what the lawyers recommended.

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jfeith@postmedia.com

pcherry@postmedia.com

Two men have been charged in connection with the discovery of a large quantity of cocaine in a shipment of plastic drawers at the Port of Montreal.

The two appeared before a Quebec Court judge at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday and were ordered detained until bail or release hearings scheduled for Monday.

RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Camille Habel said the men were arrested this week at a warehouse on St-Urbain St. after Canada Border Services Agency inspectors discovered more than 81 kilograms of cocaine in a shipping container at the port.

RCMP investigators were notified of the discovery and they waited to see who would claim the container. A few days later, the container was picked up and delivered by truck to the warehouse by a driver who does not face charges.

The men who were arrested met the driver at the warehouse and took control of the delivery. Based on a series of photographs released by the RCMP on Thursday, it appears the men were preparing to transfer the cocaine from the packages of plastic drawers to hockey equipment bags found in the trunk of a car at the warehouse.

Tudor Donciu, 32, a resident of St-Laurent, was arrested along with Patrick Simionescu, 26, of Laval. Both men were born in Romania and one is a Canadian citizen.

In 2016, Donciu was arrested by Montreal police in St-Léonard and was alleged to have been in possession of a kilogram of cocaine, but any charges filed against him in that case were later withdrawn. Simionescu does not have a criminal record.

Both men are charged with illegally importing cocaine into Canada between March 28 and April 2 and with being in possession of cocaine with the intent to traffic in it.

The RCMP suspect these hockey bags were to be used to transport cocaine.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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Michel Arsenault, the gymnastics coach currently charged with sexually assaulting or assaulting six minors he instructed while they were in training in Montreal, is still under investigation according to the lead Sûreté du Québec investigator in the case.

The revelation came on Friday, the fifth day in the preliminary inquiry into the case in which Arsenault, 57, was charged with three counts of sexual assault and four counts of simple assault. At least one of the alleged offences dates back to 1983. After having heard evidence over the course of the week, including testimony from five of the alleged victims, Quebec Court Judge Marie-Josée Di Lallo ruled there is enough evidence for the case to proceed on five of the charges Arsenault faces. She also decided to drop a sexual assault charge and an assault charge because of a lack of evidence.

The alleged offences occurred over the course of 30 years while Arsenault was a trainer with Flipgym, located in Rosemont. The last victim called as a witness testified on Friday while clutching a completed Rubik’s Cube in her hands. When prosecutor Sylvie Lemieux announced the Crown had finished presenting its evidence, defence lawyer Roxane Hamelin called SQ investigator Éric Lefebvre to go over a list of witnesses who were interviewed so far. However, Lefebvre refused to identify two on the list.

“If I reveal their names it might compromise an ongoing investigation,” Lefebvre said while clarifying later at least one of the witnesses is believed to have been abused by Arsenault, but is “hesitant” to give a statement.

Lefebvre said he also contacted two women on the list who had trained under Arsenault and said they saw no evidence of him having sex with other girls. But, Lefebvre added, both said they were willing to testify about the “atmosphere” in the gym while they were coached by Arsenault.

Lefebvre also said the SQ’s investigation began in November 2017. He said the Montreal police contacted the SQ to advise a woman had recently contacted them to “reactivate” a complaint she had filed in 1998. Lefebvre said the original complaint made to Montreal police had been transferred to the SQ because the alleged offences occurred in other parts of Quebec, the U.S. and Europe. Lefebvre said while he could find no record of the case having been transferred to the SQ, Montreal police kept the woman’s 1998 statement.

Decades after the alleged offences, the woman was still in terrible shape psychologically, Lefebvre said of their first meeting in 2017.

“She was in even in worse shape than when she testified (earlier this week),” Lefebvre said.

The woman who stepped forward in 1998 and again in 2017 was the first witness at the preliminary inquiry on Monday. She said Arsenault had sex with her on several occasions while she was a minor and he was her coach. She said she agreed to have sex with Arsenault because her parents could not afford to pay for the type of training he was providing.

At around the same time the woman was reactivating her complaint in 2017, Radio Canada aired a report about Arsenault and his alleged abuse. Lefebvre said he eventually learned a Radio Canada reporter had convinced the woman to contact Montreal police. Other victims came forward as the investigation progressed, Lefebvre said.

“The one common denominator among them all was that they were very scared of Mr. Arsenault,” Lefebvre said. “They all asked if he was going to see (the recorded statements they gave to the police).”

Arsenault was running a gym in Edmonton when he was arrested last year.

The case returns to court in May.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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A man who exchanged gunfire with a hitman who tried to kill Raynald Desjardins in Laval while the latter was involved in a desperate power struggle to take charge of the Montreal Mafia has been granted full parole on his sentence.

In June 2015, Montreal resident Jonathan Mignacca, 34, was sentenced to prison term of six years and seven months after being convicted of recklessly discharging a firearm and other charges related to how, on Sept. 16, 2011, a gunman emerged from a wooded area close to where Desjardins and Mignacca had arranged to meet and tried to kill both men. The shooter apparently had information that at least Desjardins could be found at the location, near Lévesque Blvd. E., just west of Highway 25, at 9:30 a.m. that morning.

Desjardins and Mignacca, were inside their respective vehicles and had their driver-side windows lined up so they could talk to each other when the gunman opened fire on both vehicles. Desjardins sped off in his BMW X5 while Mignacca used a Glock handgun to exchange gunfire with the hitman who got away and was never arrested. Mignacca was arrested a short while later after police spotted him emerging from a wooded area not far from where the shooting took place.

It appeared that only Mignacca was wounded in the exchange — a slight injury to his chest — but there were several innocent bystanders in the area while the bullets flew in both directions. A Laval city bus, with passengers on board, that happened to be passing by was struck by one of the bullets.

At the time, Desjardins was involved in a conflict with Salvatore Montagna as both sought to take control of the Montreal Mafia while Mob boss Vito Rizzuto was incarcerated in the U.S. Montagna was killed two months after the failed hit on Desjardins and evidence gathered during what started as a drug trafficking investigation revealed Desjardins plotted the hit. He is currently serving a 14-year sentence for his leading role in the conspiracy.

The police also had evidence to suggest Mignacca ignored his bail conditions and conducted surveillance for Desjardins between the day Montagna was killed, on Nov. 24, 2011, and the day Desjardins was arrested, on Dec. 20, 2011. Investigators were able to intercept messages sent via Blackberrys between Mignacca, Desjardins and a few of the men who were involved in the plot. Messages sent from a Blackberry the police believed was used by Mignacca indicated he watched for cars that appeared to be tailing Desjardins and tried to determine if the people inside were undercover police officers. On Dec. 16, 2011, Mignacca is believed to have exchanged text messages with another man who was also doing surveillance for Desjardins as they expressed alarm that a helicopter appeared to be monitoring his movements.

According to a written summary of a decision made by the Parole Board of Canada on April 5, Mignacca has “demonstrated exemplary behaviour” since October 2018, when he was transferred from a penitentiary to a halfway house after he was granted day parole.

“You have been able to disassociate yourself from your problematic fellow inmates and illicit activities. Your interactions with staff and your peers were deemed to be appropriate. You attended school and also hold a position as cook/general labourer,” the author of the summary noted in the decision. “According to your case management team, you felt sorry for the witnesses of the shooting and you felt a lot of guilt and remorse towards the negative consequences of your criminal choices for the victims, your family and friends.”

Despite the glowing recommendations, the parole board decided to impose conditions on Mignacca’s release for the rest of his sentence. He has to respect a curfew that requires him to be home between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. except for work, school or “any other positive activities approved by your parole officer.”

He is also not allowed to associate with anyone who has a criminal record or who is involved in organized crime.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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A man was arrested by Montreal police early Saturday morning after a 911 caller in Côte-St-Luc reported hearing shots fired.

The 911 call at around 1:30 a.m. Saturday reported shots around Kildare St. and Eldridge Ave.

Witnesses on the scene said they saw a vehicle leave the scene with suspects. No one was injured but casings were found.

Montreal police spokesperson Const. Manuel Couture said investigators believe the target of the shooting was a 26-year-old man who resides in the area where the shots were fired. Crime scene technicians found damage, believed to have been caused by bullets, on a building where the intended victim resides. They appeared to be focused on damage done to the exterior of a duplex on Kildare St. and investigators were still talking to witnesses as of 1 p.m.

“It appears the 26-year-old man was in a conflict with (the person or people who tried to shoot him),” Couture said adding that, as of early Saturday afternoon, the 25-year-old man who was arrested had yet to be questioned and therefore likely won’t appear in court on Saturday if any charges are eventually filed against him. The suspect is known to police.

Montreal police were still on the scene of an overnight incident in which residents reported shot fired. No one was injured.

The 25-year-old was arrested shortly after the 911 call was made. Patrollers spotted the vehicle near Cavendish Blvd. and de Terrebonne St. A firearm was found inside the vehicle. But two other men who were spotted inside the same car fled on foot and are still being sought by police.

pcherry@postmedia.com

The former president of a construction company admitted on Monday that he killed Laval resident Domenico Iacono three years ago because he felt the homicide victim was shaking him down for money in a failed attempt to flip real estate.

According to a joint statement of facts presented to Superior Court Justice Lyne Décarie at the Montreal courthouse, André Michel Boyer, 59, also tried to dispose of Iacono’s body because he believed he had ties to the Montreal Mafia, based on apparently baseless allegations a mutual acquaintance made weeks before the victim was stabbed 32 times.

Boyer, who had been on Quebec’s Ten Most Wanted list, was initially charged with first-degree murder and with causing an indignity to Iacono’s body. Décarie accepted Boyer’s guilty plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter.

The statement of facts is based mostly on Boyer’s version of events, but it was supported by statements from other witnesses, including one who said Iacono was pressuring Boyer to pay $100,000 that Boyer had no legal obligation to pay after he failed to generate investors to buy a parcel of land in Laval.

On June 3, 2015, Boyer was introduced to owners of the Laval property. They were purportedly planning to renovate the building on it, but a week later, Boyer was informed the owners were interested in selling the property instead. He admitted to police that he signed an offer to buy the property on Aug. 20, 2015.

Boyer told the police that when he wanted to back out of the offer weeks later, Iacono, a partner in the offer, claimed he was owed $100,000. The mutual acquaintance quoted Iacono as having told Boyer: “Look, I’m not going to be taken as a fool. We brought you to the table. You still have to pay a sales commission.”

Domenico Iacono, 56, had been convicted of fraud in the past before he got involved with André Michel Boyer in a real-estate scheme.

According to Boyer’s version of events, on Oct. 26, 2015, Iacono insisted on meeting him at Boyer’s St-Léonard home and having a conversation inside the building where Boyer was renovating his duplex’s basement, using tools that included a knife and a screwdriver.

Boyer said he presented Iacono with documents that he hoped would extend his offer to buy the property, but Iacono insisted he be paid.

Boyer quoted Iacono, who had been convicted of fraud in the past, as having said: “You seem to be a nice guy. I’ll give you a break. You can pay the $100,000 on a monthly basis.” He also said Iacono flew into a rage and tossed the documents he presented to him in the air. Boyer said he asked Iacono to leave his home and tried to run away when Iacono’s anger grew. Boyer said he slipped on one of the pieces of paper Iacono tossed in the air and was lying on the floor when he saw Iacono come at him with a screwdriver. and grabbed a knife

Boyer claims he can only recall having stabbed Iacono once or twice.

“He states that he can remember nothing else. When he ‘woke up’ he noticed Iacono bleeding on the floor, the knife in his back, and (Boyer) was on top of him,” the lawyers wrote in the statement of facts.

Boyer admitted he wrapped Iacono’s body in a canvas, placed it in the trunk of the victim’s Mercedes and parked it several blocks away from his home. Iacono was reported as missing the following day and his Mercedes was located on Oct. 29, 2015, on Désy St.

Boyer’s wife told the police that he travelled to the U.S., Costa Rica and Japan before he returned to Canada and surrendered to police in January 2016.

Boyer’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for July.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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The Montreal fire department has tweeted Monday evening that there is a five-alarm fire in a residential section of Pierrefonds.

https://twitter.com/MTL_SIM?lang=en

They report the location of the fire as being near the intersection of Riverdale Blvd. and Riviera St. They advise motorists to avoid the area and warn that the electricity might have to be cut while the blaze is being fought.

Judging by a series of tweets that were posted, the fire quickly went from a one-alarm fire to a five-alarm fire in less than an hour.

More details to come.

pcherry@postmedia.com

A police officer who was arrested along with dozens of people rounded up following a major drug trafficking investigation into the Hells Angels has been granted parole on the 18-month sentence he received in January.

Carl Ranger, a member of the Repentigny police when he was arrested in Project Objection last year, quit the police force shortly after he was charged. He admitted that in 2017 he approached an undercover agent who was involved in Project Objection and asked him for a $6,000 loan, and then broke the law to get it.

The undercover agent said he would agree to the loan if Ranger did a few favours for him. The first was to research a license plate in a police database for the undercover agent, who was posing as a criminal. After carrying out that task, Ranger agreed to transport 10,000 meth pills to a drug dealer and returned with $10,000 for the undercover agent.

When Ranger pleaded guilty in October, no evidence presented in court suggested that what he agreed to had anything to do with the Hells Angels. Several full-patch members of the biker gang have been arrested since April last year, when the first series of arrests were carried out. Some have since pleaded guilty to running drug trafficking networks in different parts of the province.

According to a written copy of the decision made by the Commission québécoise des libérations conditionnelles on Monday, Ranger said his career as a police officer spiralled after he discovered the body of a woman who had been murdered in 2008. He said he slipped into a depression following the gruesome discovery and he received minimal support from the police force. He said he drank more and fell into financial trouble after he took a leave of absence to deal with his depression.

Ranger was eligible for parole after having served one-sixth of his sentence.

This story will be updated.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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The provincial liquor board has turned down a request from the owners of the Montreal Observation Wheel to serve alcohol at their restaurant in the Old Port, based on concerns the Montreal police have with one of the restaurant’s suppliers, a man with known ties to the Montreal Mafia.

The owners of the Grande Roue de Montréal Hospitalité, the ferris wheel that has become a popular tourist attraction and part of Montreal’s skyline since it was opened in 2017 as part of the city’s 375th anniversary, recently requested a liquor permit for the bistro they built next to it. Police were opposed to the permit being granted because of the frequent presence of Montreal businessman Steve Vogl at the site. The Régie des Alcools, des courses et des jeux held a series of hearings on the matter in January and February and, on Thursday, released its decision rejecting the request.

During the hearings, the Montreal police said it believed Vogl is a part owner of the Observation Wheel while its owners — president Jeff Jorgensen and his father, Niels —  insisted he is only a supplier to them. They also said they would continue doing business with Vogl despite the serious allegations made by the police about his ties to the Montreal Mafia.

A Montreal police officer assigned to look into the owners’ first request in 2017 testified that he tried several times to meet with Jeff Jorgensen to discuss his company’s ownership without success. Another officer making a routine visit to the site in the Old Port testified that when he asked an employee whose luxury car was parked there, the employee said it belonged to Vogl and described him as one of the owners of the tourist attraction.

According to the decision released Thursday, during the hearings the owners provided a detailed account of the project’s financing and their version was not contradicted by lawyers arguing on the side of the Montreal police.

Vogl has a criminal record that includes a 1992 conviction in the U.S. for having smuggled a massive shipment of hashish from Lebanon that was destined for Canada. He was sentenced to a 90-month prison term and was able to serve the final part of it after being returned to Canada.

During the spring of 2013, Vogl opened a clothing store in downtown Montreal that carried a popular line of clothing made in Italy. The store threw a lavish party the evening it opened and a Montreal police investigator noticed that Mob boss Vito Rizzuto was in attendance, wearing a pink dress shirt and very much at ease as he stood outside the store chatting with other party guests. The investigator noted at the time that it appeared to be the first time Rizzuto appeared to comfortable out in public following his return, late in 2012, from having been incarcerated in the U.S. and after his organization had been under attack for years. The clothing store has since gone out of business.

“It’s like (Rizzuto) is sending a message that he is back and he’s not hiding anymore,” the investigator told the Montreal Gazette in 2013 while expressing surprise at how the then head of the Montreal Mafia appeared to have suddenly emerged from the shadows.

The decision released Thursday notes that at around the same time, on May 9, 2013, police noticed that Vogl was seen seated at the same table as Rizzuto while both men dined at a downtown restaurant.

The liquor board felt that while the police failed to make a convincing argument that the company is part-owned by Vogl, it had concerns with how the Jorgensens insisted they will continue doing business with Vogl despite what was said before the tribunal.

“If we add the insouciance, the recklessness expressed by Jeff and Neils Jorgensen, who persist in maintaining their links to (Vogl) and if, in the end, we take into consideration where their activities are located (in the Old Port), the tribunal has serious motives to reject the request in terms of maintaining public tranquility,” the Régie wrote in its decision. “It seems to us that the public’s confidence in the (tribunal) and its capacity to evaluate the notions of public interest, public security and tranquility risks being seriously undermined.”

pcherry@postmedia.com

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The man who caused Concordia University to evacuate three of its buildings after he sent fake terrorist bomb threats has been granted full parole on the 18-month prison term he received in October.

Hisham Saadi, 49, was granted the release earlier this month by the Commission québécoise des libérations conditionnelles (CQLC) after the provincial parole board determined that “the risk (he) represents does not seem unacceptable to society.”

On March 1, 2017, security at Concordia and several media outlets began receiving emails written by Saadi. The emails claimed to be from a white supremacist group called the Council of Conservative Citizens of Canada. The emails stated that a series of homemade bombs had been placed in two of the university’s buildings and that they would be set off over the course of three days. Concordia closed three of its buildings for roughly seven hours before searches of the buildings proved the threats were fake.

It took police little time to trace the emails to Saadi’s Montreal apartment, and he was arrested within hours. In June, Saadi was convicted of committing acts that, considering the context, were susceptible to causing fear that terrorist acts were about to be carried out. During the sentencing stage, Saadi, who completed a master’s degree in administration at Concordia in 2005, admitted he made the threats in an effort to avoid taking a midterm exam he wasn’t ready for. Saadi began a doctorate program in 2015, but flunked out. He registered as an independent student, but had to maintain an A- average in order to get back into the doctorate program. He felt that if he did poorly on the midterm, he would never get back in.

Saadi was first granted a conditional release on Jan. 16. While the CQLC’s two previous decisions have been redacted, it appears clear Saadi was required to reside at an institution where he could be treated for psychological problems while he did volunteer work for two organizations.

In its latest decision, the CQLC noted that Saadi seems to have made progress toward getting his life together.

“You have notably carried out community work and undergone consultations to address your mental health problem. It is however worrisome that you have been lax in terms of finding a job which, in the board’s opinion, is necessary in terms of living a life respectful of the law,” the board wrote in its decision. “The board also notes however that as you approach the age of 50 this is your first time serving a sentence.”

The board attached a series of conditions Saadi will have to respect for the remainder of his sentence. He is required to follow any psychological therapy prescribed to him, and he has to show proof he is taking courses with the goal of finding a job. He is also not allowed to set foot in any building owned by Concordia and is not allowed to be within 200 metres of any university campus.

The sentence Saadi received in October includes a three-year period of supervised probation after the prison term expires in April next year.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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Steve Vogl’s ties to organized crime are so ingrained into his lifestyle he once had to choose between removing several people from his wedding invitation list or returning to a federal penitentiary.

The 53-year-old Montreal businessman was the reason behind the Régie des alcools des courses et des jeux decision on Thursday to turn down a request, from the owners of the Montreal Observation Wheel located in the Old Port, that would have allowed them to serve alcohol in a bistro near the tourist attraction. While the liquor board wasn’t convinced Vogl might be a silent partner in the Observation Wheel, as the Montreal police alleged, it was troubled by how the owners insisted they will keep doing business with him, as a supplier, despite having heard evidence of his ties to organized crime.

Among other things, the liquor board was told Vogl was seen dining with Vito Rizzuto, the now-deceased leader of the Montreal Mafia, in May 2013. A police officer testified that Vogl was seen dining with Rizzuto in a downtown restaurant along with Gregory Woolley, a man currently considered to be one of the most influential organized crime figures in Montreal, and former lawyer Loris Cavaliere. The men had dined together just weeks before Vogl was about to open a boutique on De la Montagne St. that would be the first to carry a popular clothing line from Italy in North America. In 2013, a police source told the Montreal Gazette Rizzuto attended a party held at the boutique to celebrate its opening.

The boutique has since closed, but when it opened the owners of the Italian company told the Montreal Gazette they felt Vogl a “great partner” in their first venture into Canada. They were likely unaware Vogl has a lengthy criminal record and had previously served a 12-year prison term that included a sentence he received for attempting to smuggle 1,000 kilograms of hashish from Lebanon to Canada. The hashish was hidden among a shipment of two containers filled with furniture.

Vogl was convicted in the U.S. on charges related to the large shipment of hashish and was initially sentenced to a seven-year prison term. He began serving the sentence on July 20, 1993, and was transferred to Canada in 1995. According to Parole Board of Canada records, Vogl had previously served a four-year prison term, during the 1980s, for a series of armed robberies he carried out in the West Island. In 1995, a psychologist who evaluated Vogl for the parole board assessed him as “an individual of average intelligence, (but) with superior arithmetic reasoning abilities.”

Vogl was never granted full parole on the seven-year sentence he received in the U.S. Instead, he automatically qualified for a statutory release in 1997, after serving two-thirds of his sentence. But he was quickly returned to a penitentiary in January 1998, after he was caught acting as a middleman between drug dealers and their suppliers during an RCMP investigation. His original seven-year sentence was eventually extended into a 12-year prison term.

According to a parole decision made in 2000, the RCMP and Montreal police initially believed that Vogl was tied to the Cotroni organization, the crime family that ruled the Montreal Mafia for years before the Rizzuto organization took over in the late 1970s.

“However, a protected information report completed in March 2000 following the receipt of a written document from the Montreal Drug Squad (RCMP) reveals that you are not now and have never been a member of Italian organized crime,” the parole board noted in a decision made in July 2000. “(T)he liaison officer for organized crime criminal intelligence revised your status and now concludes that you are an independent trafficker who may sometimes have dealings with various criminal organizations.”

Months later, in January 2001, Vogl was granted full parole on his 12-year sentence. But in April that year he made an unusual request to the parole board. He was about to be married in June 2001 and he asked that one of the conditions attached to his release be altered. He was not allowed to associate with “criminal peers, or any person related to the drug milieu,” except for his future father-in-law. He asked if an exception could be made for his wedding day.

“The list of guests shows that many individuals related to organized crime and drug milieu are invited. The first question is to determine if during the specific event, you could initiate illicit activities. At first sight, the board could believe that you will not be (in a business frame of) mind on that date,” the parole board wrote back in 2001. But it still denied Vogl’s request because it felt lifting the condition, even for a day, was “a risky situation.”

pcherry@postmedia.com

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