Black Berry texts fuel mob crackdown
RCMP says it’s ‘ the most important interception of this kind’ in North America
MONTREAL — Police in Quebec say they used intercepted Black Berry communications to take down two alleged organized crime groups operating in the province.
The RCMP said Thursday more than one million private PIN to PIN messages were intercepted and analyzed as evidence as part of an operation dubbed “Clemenza.”
Officials from the RCMP and Montreal police said it is the first time this investigative technique has been used on such a large scale in a criminal investigation.
“This is the most important interception of this kind performed as part of a major investigation in North America,” RCMP Supt. Michel Arcand said at a news conference.
“One million messages were intercepted between 2010 and 2012, ( and) the investigation also included a complex analysis process.”
Arcand said the intercepts make up the bulk of the evidence used to make arrests on Thursday.
PIN messaging allows BlackBerry users to send messages directly between devices over wireless networks, bypassing email servers. The arrests are aimed at dismantling two cells which police say took over after an investigation seven years ago, Operation Colisée, that was aimed at their predecessors.
Police described the cells as linked to Italian- based organized crime in Montreal.
“We were dealing with very dangerous and well- organized crime groups, willing to do anything to achieve their goal and that has the means of their ambitions,” Arcand added.
One clan was led by nowdeceased mob boss Giuseppe De Vito; the other had an association with a group known as the Bastone brothers, police said.
“These two networks operated with the goal of trafficking in drugs, doing business in their respective territories in Montreal,” said Arcand, who runs the organized- crime unit for the Mounties in Quebec.
He said Operation Clemenza established a link between the networks and a series of violent crimes committed in Montreal between October 2010 and February 2012.
De Vito died at the Donnacona federal penitentiary last July while serving a 15- year sentence for drug trafficking. A coroner’s investigation determined he died of cyanide poisoning.
But his clan continued to operate, police said.
Police said they arrested 31 people in Montreal, Quebec City, Laval and Gatineau.
They’d originally said they were looking for 32 people, but have since added two more names to their list.
Three people remain on the lam, Arcand said.
Some 200 officers took part in the operation under the guidance of the RCMP’s Quebec detachment. The accused face different charges that include gangsterism, conspiracy, drug importation, trafficking, possession, kidnapping, forcible confinement, possession of weapons and explosives, arson, extortion and assault.
In total, police say more than 80 charges were filed in court and they were expected to be arraigned later Thursday.
Police also seized more than a dozen high- powered weapons, including several sub machineguns, shotguns and semi- automatic pistols.
Montreal police say they discovered the weapons and explosives during a search of a warehouse just east of the city in 2011 while acting on an anonymous tip.