A personal phone number for Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto was found saved in the telephone of a man accused in a massive $1-billion drug empire that allegedly flooded the eastern seaboard of the United States with marijuana and funnelled cocaine back into Canada, U.S. prosecutors say.
The alleged contact between Mr. Rizzuto and a man now facing charges in the United States is another link to emerge between the Quebec man and “the highest level of Mafia leadership,” prosecutors said Tuesday.
Jimmy Cournoyer, 33, of Laval, has been named as the central figure in the ring, charged with bringing high-potency marijuana from British Columbia to Quebec and smuggling it into the United States through the Mohawk First Nation’s Akwesasne reserve. Revenue was then used to buy cocaine in Mexico and smuggle it into Canada, prosecutors said.
Six men were charged in the high-profile case, five of them Canadians: Mr. Cournoyer, who is also known by the nicknames Superman and Cosmo; Mario Racine, who has the nickname Diego; Patrick Paisse, who is also known as Pegleg; Jose Alejandro Castillo Medina, also known as Primo; and Alessandro Taloni.
“Alessandro Taloni — Cournoyer’s manager for cocaine operations on the West Coast — was previously arrested in Canada for extorting a business,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Tiscione told court Tuesday.
