Montreal airport smuggling ring trial starts

Paul Cherry, Montreal Gazette
November 2, 2009

Eugenio Reda (far left) and Emilio Rafeli (far right) seen here at the Palais du Justice Monday.

Photo by: Dave Sidaway

MONTREAL — The trial of eight men charged with helping the Mafia smuggle cocaine into Canada began in Montreal Monday morning. Several of them held various jobs at Dorval airport.

The trial at the Montreal courthouse, before Judge Claude Parent, is expected to last four weeks. Included among the eight accused are people who worked for Cara, a food services company, Globe Ground, a former company that handled baggage at the airport, and Air Canada. The men face several charges related to specific attempts to bring cocaine through the airport.

Marco Pedicelli, 39, of Montreal, worked for Air Canada. Emilio Rafeli, 31, of St. Léonard and Eugenio Reda, 32, of L'Epiphanie, worked for baggage handling company Globe Ground. Marco Cerone, 45, of Mascouche, worked for food services company Cara and Achille Torre, 40, of Montreal North, was a former employee of the same company. The three other men on trial — Jose Merdardo Castillo Martinez, 41, of Laval, Dany Cecere, 30, of Repentigny, and Gaetan Dugas, 33, of Terrebonne — handled cocaine for the organization after it left the airport, Dalmau said.

Torre is the brother of Giuseppe Torre, a drug trafficker with ties to the Montreal Mafia. He is already serving a lengthy sentence for crimes related to the Project Colisée investigation. Dalmau told Parent that it was Giuseppe Torre who co-ordinated the cocaine shipments through the airports through his contacts, in particular with Rodolfo Ignoto, 42, of Laval. Ignoto avoided being part of the same trial when he pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy and committing a crime for the benefit of a criminal organization and received a six-year prison term as a sentence.

The largest amount involved in the conspiracies was a 218-kilogram load of cocaine seized at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in January 2005.

Prosecutor Alexandre Dalmau said the seizure caused a rift between two drug smugglers and high ranking members of the Montreal Mafia. The conflict opened a large window to the conspiracy in general, Dalmau said at the start of the trial.