Nero convicted of first-degree murder
Four men, including one from Niagara Falls, have been convicted of first-degree murder in the greed-fuelled gangland execution of cocaine dealer Johnnie Raposo in Little Italy.
After two days of deliberation, a jury found Nero, Martino Caputo, Rabih Alkhalil and Dean Wiwchar plotted and carried out the fatal shooting of the 35-year-old Raposo on June 18, 2012 on the patio of the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe.
A jury also convicted them of conspiracy to commit murder.
Nero, 40, Caputo, 43, and Alkhalil, 30, were to share 200 kilograms of cocaine stolen from the dead dealer’s stash. The trio planned on paying Wiwchar, the self-described “hitman,” a fee of $100,000.
“Our hearts are broken. Justice cannot bring back the missing link in our family,” Raposo’s cousin, Helen Pacheco, said after jurors delivered their verdict on Thursday.
“Just as we said at his funeral mass, we ask everyone to remember John not as he died, but how he lived.”
She thanked the media for being “respectful with our family during the proceedings, but we are now asking for some privacy to heal.”
Nero, a former body-builder and gym owner, ran a huge cocaine importation enterprise from a St. Catharines halfway house before he was busted a few weeks before Raposo’s murder. This prison-imposed absence formed part of his defence as he was out of the picture and back in jail.
In 2014, Nero was sentenced to 22 years for his drug crimes, criminal organization and the proceeds of crime.
A first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole for 25 years. The four convicted killers will be formally sentenced at a later date.
Nero, Caputo and Alkhalil duped Raposo into believing they wanted to transport his drug shipment from Chicago to Toronto while they actually intended to assassinate him and steal his cocaine, according to the Crown’s case.
The defence alleged Raposo was killed by a second set of plotters, Montreal drug dealers, including Fred Lavoie, who fled and was found murdered and dismembered in Colombia in 2014.
Alkhalil connected Nero with Alkhalil’s “best hitter,” Wiwchar, who was under police surveillance in Vancouver as a suspect in the January 2012 execution of gangster Sandip “Dip” Duhre, 35.
Wiwchar is now serving a 10year prison sentence for gun convictions after police discovered 16 firearms at his Vancouver condo and a “safehouse” condo in Surrey.
While a suspect, Wiwchar wasn’t charged in Duhre’s slaying. Alkhalil is facing a first-degree murder charge on that killing.
Nero, Caputo, Alkhalil and Wiwchar will be back in court on May 23.