Crown seeks lengthy time in mob trial
Mobsters guilty of drug and gang offences to be sentenced next month
Convicted Mafia boss Giuseppe (Pino) Ursino had no comment on the prospect of a 16-year prison sentence for his role in an aborted cocaine importing scheme.
“I don’t have anything to say, your honour,” Ursino, 65, of Bradford, said Wednesday before Justice Brian O’Marra in a downtown Toronto courtroom.
“I don’t feel up to saying anything, your honour,” Ursino said through an Italianlanguage interpreter. His co-accused, Cosmin (Chris) Dracea, 42, of Toronto, told court Wednesday that he is deeply sorry for his actions and how they will hurt his young family.
Dracea, a father of two, repeated his argument that he was just trying to scam a police agent and not actually import cocaine in shipments of jerk sauce.
“How can I not have remorse for what I did?” Dracea said. “I know I did a tremendous mistake.
“I know I need to pay for my mistake,” Dracea said, although he said that the 14 years sought by the Crown is too hefty a payment.
“Fourteen years — that’s a lifetime,” he said.
Court heard that Ursino has had two heart operations since his conviction last year.
Ursino will require nine types of heart medication in prison, lawyer Dragi Zekavica said, adding that both Ursino’s parents died of heart troubles.
O’Marra set Feb. 28 as the date he will pass sentence.
The Crown called for a prison sentence of 16 years for Ursino and 14 years for Dracea.
Zekavica argued for a sentence of seven years while Dracea’s lawyer, Lydia Riva, said between five and seven years would be appropriate for her client.
Neither Ursino nor Dracea has a criminal record.
The prosecution marked the first time in Canada the ’Ndrangheta Mafia group has been targeted as an organized crime group since the offence of criminal organization came into effect in 1997, senior federal prosecutor Tom Andreopoulos said earlier in an interview.
A jury found Ursino guilty of trafficking cocaine, trafficking cocaine related to a criminal organization, possession of property directly or indirectly related to an indictable offence, conspiracy to import cocaine and conspiracy to import cocaine related to a criminal organization.
Dracea was found not guilty of trafficking cocaine related to a criminal organization; he was found guilty of trafficking cocaine, possession of $60,000 directly or indirectly related to an indictable offence, conspiracy to import cocaine, and conspiracy to import cocaine related to a criminal organization.
Dracea, a restaurant manager, pleaded guilty to trafficking a kilo of cocaine at the outset of the trial.
Ursino, a grandfather who runs a small food distributing company, took the witness stand during the trial, denying any knowledge of the ’Ndrangheta in the GTA.
“Do you have any knowledge of the ’Ndrangheta in the Greater Toronto Area?” Zekavica asked him during the trial.
“No,” Ursino replied through an interpreter.
“I’m not a boss, not even in my own family,” Ursino later said.
While on the witness stand during the trial, Ursino admitted talking about cocaine importing and other crimes such as extortion, but said he didn’t really mean it.
“The stupid words come out of my mouth,” Ursino testified.
“What I’m talking is one thing,” Ursino said in oftenemotional testimony. “What I mean is another.”