Paul Cherry, Montreal GazetteMore from Paul Cherry, Montreal Gazette
Fifteen people were arrested Wednesday, including a few who were already behind bars, as part of an RCMP-led investigation into a Mob-tied cocaine-trafficking ring that used an unusual — and some might say streetwise — technique to sneak their product into Canada.
While cocaine is often smuggled into Canada creatively hidden among products buried deep in shipping containers, some of the people arrested Wednesday are alleged to have smuggled the narcotic in by mixing it with asphalt powder. A release issued by the RCMP describes the method as unusual and alleges that one of the accused sought Wednesday is “the chemist of the group (who) was responsible for extracting the cocaine from the legitimate substance.”
A total of 36 charges, contained in two indictments, were filed at the Montreal courthouse after members of the RCMP-led Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit made the arrests. At least a few of the people sought were very easy to find. Steven Fracas, 30, is currently detained while charged, along with seven other men, in the murder of Salvatore Montagna, a Mafia leader who was gunned down near Montreal in November 2011. Stéphane Parent, 47, is incarcerated in a federal penitentiary serving a five-year prison term after pleading guilty to a series of charges, in 2012, in connection with a drug and contraband tobacco ring tied to the Hells Angels in the Quebec City region. He is scheduled to have his first parole hearing next week.
The third man already behind bars, Artur Klodkowski, 38, is detained while awaiting a possible trial in a different drug-trafficking case at the Montreal courthouse brought against him and six other people last year.
The indictments detail alleged drug-trafficking conspiracies that stretched throughout Eastern Canada from Ontario to Nova Scotia. In its statement, the RCMP alleged the network “was to control drug trafficking in the greater Montreal area as well as the Atlantic provinces.” The Mounties also noted in the statement that the drug-trafficking cell busted on Wednesday was linked to arrests made in June in Project Clemenza. Just like in Clemenza, the alleged drug-trafficking conspiracies involve a time frame limited between 2010 and 2011. That is because the Mounties had to put both probes on hold while investigators with the RCMP’s C Division based in Montreal had to turn their attention toward another investigation.
Five of the people arrested on Wednesday were previously charged in June in Project Clemenza, including Antonio Bastone, 52, of St-Jean-de-Matha, and his younger brother Roberto, 42, of Laval, the alleged leaders of one of two cells broken up last year. The brothers were released on bail in July after posting $5-million bonds on real estate.
Giuseppe Arcoraci, 49, a man listed in business records as the president of a restaurant in LaSalle, was also among the people arrested on Wednesday. He faces three charges in all, including one alleging he was part of a conspiracy, between October 2010 and September 2011, to traffic in cocaine and marijuana. The alleged plot involved a dozen of the people arrested Wednesday as well Giuseppe (Closure) Colapelle, a 38-year-old man tied to the Mafia who was murdered in St-Léonard in March 2012.
Most of the people arrested appeared before a judge at the Montreal courthouse, via a video conference, on Wednesday and their cases are scheduled to return to court on April 20. The RCMP also issued a notice that they are seeking to arrest two more men as part of the most recent investigation. Mathieu Bouchard, 37, and Mike Di Battista, 39, are being sought.