Rizzuto still facing weapons, drug charges
Acquitted this week of gangsterism, conspiracy to traffic cocaine charges
Acquitted this week in a case that alleged he was heading the Mafia in Montreal, Leonardo Rizzuto will return to court next month, as he still faces firearm and drug possession charges in a separate case.
The son of Vito Rizzuto, the reputed mob boss who died in 2013, Rizzuto, 48, was acquitted of charges of gangsterism and conspiracy to traffic cocaine on Monday.
But separate possession charges still stand in another case, which was briefly heard at the Montreal courthouse Friday morning only to be postponed until March.
“We asked for the postponement to have time to assess the impact of this week’s ruling,” Crown prosecutor Matthew Ferguson said outside the courtroom.
On Monday, Quebec Superior Court Judge Eric Downs ruled that police illegally wiretapped Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito, also acquitted this week, in the conference room at their lawyer’s office.
Downs excluded the wiretap evidence gathered by a joint police task force in 2015 as a violation of the constitutional right to solicitor-client privilege. Most of the Crown’s evidence against the pair came from a conversation that was intercepted in a conference room and in the reception area of the law office, which were also used by other lawyers and their clients.
The two men were arrested in 2015 and alleged to be the new leaders of the Mafia in Montreal. The possession charges against Rizzuto were filed in January 2016.
The case returns to court on March 22.