Gangsterism charge dropped in Hells Angel case
When Salvatore Cazzetta was arrested in November 2015, the man alleged to be a leader among the Hells Angels in Quebec appeared to be in deep trouble.
He was among 48 people rounded up in Projects Magot and Mastiff, two investigations into drug trafficking that intersected and produced charges against the alleged leaders of Montreal’s most powerful criminal organizations, including the world’s most powerful outlaw motorcycle gang and the Montreal Mafia.
Cazzetta, 62, was initially charged with being in possession of cash generated through drug trafficking, conspiracy, and a gangsterism charge related to the cash. True to his form, Cazzetta has since chipped away at the case and, following a Superior Court decision delivered on Thursday, he is now set to go to trial in December, only on the charge alleging he was in possession of the proceeds of crime while the Project Mastiff investigation was underway. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and, by the time Cazzetta goes to trial, he will have already served the equivalent of a three-year prison term.
The Crown withdrew the conspiracy charge months ago, and on Thursday Justice Daniel Royer ruled the evidence gathered in Project Mastiff does not prove that the money Cazzetta allegedly received as “a tax” from drug trafficking tied to the Hells Angels in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve was payment for something that went beyond himself and the person who handed it to him — a man who is now a witness for the prosecution.
In September, a case involving allegations that Cazzetta was involved in large-scale contraband tobacco trafficking was placed under a stay of proceedings after Cazzetta’s lawyers — Anne-Marie Lanctôt and Nellie Benoît — successfully argued it had taken the prosecution too long to bring the case, which started in 2009, to a trial.
With the conspiracy and gangsterism charges subtracted, the Project Mastiff case Cazzetta faces appears to have been weakened. Prosecutors Jonathan Meunier and Bruno Ménard would only say they will examine Royer’s decision before making any decisions on it. Benoît and another defence lawyer, Mylène Lareau, represented Cazzetta in the request he made concerning the gangsterism charge. They argued that Quebec Court Judge Manon Ouimet made an error during a preliminary inquiry earlier this year, when she decided there was enough evidence for a trial on both the proceeds of crime and gangsterism charges. They argued there is no evidence the money in question served the interests of a criminal organization.
The prosecution witness has alleged the so-called tax was paid in exchange for Cazzetta’s influence in settling disputes he had with other organized-crime figures.
“The link between the (alleged) payment to Mr. Cazzetta and the interests of the organization of (the drug trafficker who is now a prosecution witness) cannot be inferred from (the evidence gathered in Project Mastiff ),” Royer wrote in his 12-page decision.
Three other men who were arrested in Project Mastiff have already completed the sentences they received in the case. The men — Eric Bourgeois, 38, Vincent Tremblay Lanois, 36, both of Montreal, and Patrick Dubois, 49, of Laval — were sentenced to the time they had already served since 2015 after having pleaded guilty to charges related to drug trafficking this year.
Two other men are scheduled to be sentenced in the coming months.