|
A
Montreal man sentenced to four years in
prison nine months ago for his role in a
Mafia-led drug empire was fast-tracked for
early release despite "very disturbing"
findings by the National Parole Board.
Antonio "Anthony" LaRosa, 23, was sentenced
in May for his role in a gang that imported
1,500 kilograms of cocaine, with a wholesale
value of about $30-million, into Canada from
Colombia. The
Toronto-based Mafia group, led by Alfonso
Caruana, who was described by police as the
world's richest and most powerful gangster,
was dismantled in 1998 after one of the most
expensive criminal investigations in
Canadian history.
Last month, the Quebec office of the parole
board approved LaRosa for full parole."Your
active role in this high level drug
trafficking scheme and your links to
organized crime are very disturbing," a
board member wrote of LaRosa in the board's
decision registry.
"The operation was international in scope
and involved significant amounts of drugs
and money.
"The board notes that you do not appear to
have had viable employment for some years."
LaRosa's parole was
approved, however, under the automatic
parole review process because he was a
first-time offender and not charged with a
violent crime.
The board noted that LaRosa was a good
parole candidate because there "is no
indication of aggressive behaviour or
involvement."Critics said Canada's parole
regulations are inadequate if large-scale,
organized drug trafficking is not considered
a violent offence.
"The parole board should remember that drug
traffickers are merchants of death," said
Antonio Nicaso, an organized crime
specialist who is co-authoring a book about
the Caruana clan."I think that Parliament
should change that concept because drug
trafficking should be considered a dangerous
offence. People don't realize, or don't want
to realize, that behind the drugs there are
many stories of addiction and death." LaRosa
is the second member of the Caruana
organization to be released recently on
fast-tracked parole. Giuseppe Caruana,
Alfonso's 30-year-old nephew, was released
under the same provision in October.
Canada's parole allowances make the country
attractive to international drug lords, said
Mr. Nicaso. "This is one of the other
reasons that explain the high concentration
of drug traffickers and criminal
organizations in this country." Vic Toews,
justice critic for the Canadian Alliance,
said the government should make gangsters
ineligible for fast-tracked parole if it is
serious about wanting to tackle organized
crime. "These organizations thrive on
violence, so it seems the reasoning of the
parole board is somewhat suspect," said Mr.
Toews. "Knowing the type of organization
this individual was involved in, why would
they put him on that kind of accelerated
program? I think they are treating a person
who is a member of an organized gang in the
same way they would treat an ordinary,
street-level criminal with no gang
association." LaRosa
was arrested in September, 1998, and was
free on bail until he pleaded guilty to two
counts of conspiring to traffic in
narcotics. The Caruana organization was
importing massive shipments of cocaine into
Canada from Colombia through Venezuela and
the United States. As part of the group's
organization, LaRosa helped organize the
shipment of 200 kilograms of cocaine in the
spring of 1998. The drugs, 70% pure, were
tightly wrapped into bricks and hidden in a
pickup truck to be driven by couriers from
Houston into Canada. The truck was
intercepted by police in Texas, and the
cocaine was seized. Court documents say
LaRosa's father, Nunzio LaRosa, 50, of
Montreal was responsible for delivering
payments for drug shipments to suppliers in
the United States. Nunzio LaRosa made close
to a dozen trips south delivering between
$1-million and $2-million at a time.Antonio
LaRosa relayed information between the
group's couriers and his father using a
pager and cellular phone. He helped to make
travel arrangements for the couriers,
purchasing airline tickets for two couriers
who flew to the United States in order to
drive a load of cocaine back into Canada.The
police probe of the Caruana organization,
which was called Project Omerta after the
Mafia's code of silence, lasted two years
and involved agencies on three continents.
Caruana was sentenced
to 18 years in prison and his two brothers,
Gerlando and Pasquale, were also convicted
in the case. ino had a
problem any father could appreciate. His
family, once a model of joy in Mon- treal's
Italian neighbourhood of Saint-Léonard, was
being torn apart because of his son's
lustful stupidity. Although married to a
pleasant Sicilian woman and the father of
three children, Lino's only son was planning
to leave his family for a rowdy francophone
woman who hung around with bikers. |
