The trial of Leonardo Rizzuto on charges related to two firearms and a small amount of cocaine found inside his home three years ago is underway at the Montreal courthouse.
The charges are related to what police found inside Rizzuto’s home in November 2015. At the time, they were making arrests in Project Magot, a lengthy investigation into organized crime and cocaine trafficking led by the Sûreté du Québec.
When the arrests were made, the SQ alleged that Rizzuto, the son of now-deceased Mob boss Vito Rizzuto, was the head of the Montreal Mafia along with his longtime friend Stefano Sollecito.
The trial began Wednesday with prosecutor Matthew Ferguson presenting an agreed statement of facts to Quebec Court Judge Julie Riendeau as she prepared to hear arguments on a voir dire, a sort of trial within a trial.
Two defence lawyers representing Rizzuto — Dominique Shoofey and Frank Addario — are arguing that the warrant used to search Rizzuto’s home in Laval should be quashed. They are arguing the police had no reason to suspect Rizzuto was involved in drug trafficking.
When investigators involved in Project Magot searched Rizzuto’s home they found five grams of cocaine inside little packages stuffed into the pocket of a Hugo Boss suit jacket. They also found a Browning .25 calibre pistol and a Walther P99, a pistol that is popular with law enforcement agencies around the world. Police found seven bullets inside the loading clip in the Walther pistol whose serial number had been filed off.
The police also seized more than $30,000 in Canadian money, more than $18,000 (U.S.), a Blackberry and three iPhones.
Two members of the Barreau du Québec were present during the search because Rizzuto is a lawyer.
On Wednesday, Addario argued the warrant that allowed the police to enter Rizzuto’s home was tainted long before they went inside because they had already violated his right to privacy nine times beforehand. He reminded Riendeau that earlier this year, the Crown announced it would no longer prosecute Rizzuto on drug trafficking charges filed against him in Project Magot after Superior Court Justice Éric Downs ruled that wiretaps gathered in the investigation were illegal.
Addario argued that the police conducted the investigation into Rizzuto in “a negligent and careless manner” when it came to Rizzuto’s rights to privacy.
“Allow me to address the elephant in the room,” Addario said while addressing the judge. “Mr. Rizzuto has a notorious family name. Perhaps you have heard of his father?”
“Substitute the name Rizzuto with the name Smith and imagine they are laying out their evidence that way,” Addario asked of Riendeau while stating that he did the same exercise while preparing for the hearing.
Addario then proceeded to break down the evidence gathered in Project Magot and argued that the only informant (referred to only as J.J. in an affidavit used to obtain the warrant) who gave investigators information about Rizzuto appeared to base what he said about Vito Rizzuto‘s son on speculative newspaper articles published following the father’s death in December 2013.
Months after alleging that Leonardo Rizzuto was “a decision-maker” in the Montreal Mafia, J.J. gave more information to his police handler but made no mention of Rizzuto when he listed off a series of names of people the informant believed were running things.
One year after making the first allegation, Addario said, J.J. gave his police handler a list of three names of people who “respected” Salvatore Cazzetta, an influential member of the Hells Angels. J.J. said Gregory Woolley, a street gang leader, Sean Purdy, a man with alleged ties to the West End Gang, and Sollecito all respected Cazzetta.
“But he did not mention (Leonardo) Rizzuto,” Addario said. “If Rizzuto was a leader, (J.J.) would have said so.”
The defence attorney told Riendeau that the Crown will likely later argue that what J.J. alleged was corroborated on May 23, 2014, when Loris Cavaliere, a defence lawyer who was later arrested and convicted in Project Magot, was recorded while he talked to his wife on a phone. Cavaliere’s wife was reacting to a newspaper article that alleged Leonardo Rizzuto and the Hells Angels were at that point working together. Cavaliere was recorded as saying the merger of the Montreal Mafia and the Hells Angels was his doing and that he had arranged it during the Sept. 2, 2012 funeral held for a Hells Angel named Gaetan Comeau.
“(Cavaliere) brags that he is the architect of the merger. But he makes no mention of Rizzuto,” Addario said of the wiretapped conversation.
The trial resumes Wednesday afternoon.