Salvatore Scoppa shot in Terrebonne

Salvatore Scoppa survived execution February 21st when he was shot as he exited a restaurant in Terrebonne. Police confirmed that he was the victim of the shooting. Salvatore Scoppa, 47, is the brother of Andrea (Andrew) Scoppa, 53, a man known to be an influential leader within the Montreal Mafia who was recently arrested in a large-scale drug-trafficking investigation. The brothers run an independent faction that has become increasingly active in the wholesale trade of cocaine and heroin. According to sources, both men have risen to become important players in the mafia in Montreal.

_________________________________

Andrea 'Andrew' Scoppa

The Sûreté de Québec say they have detained seven men who allegedly imported and trafficked cocaine. The men are between the ages of 24 and 52 and were arrested in Montreal and suburbs to the north. Among those arrested was Andrea (Andrew) Scoppa. Scoppa, 52, was arraigned on four charges at the Montreal courthouse. Three search warrants were executed leading to more than $900,000 cash, 113.5 kilograms of cocaine, 127 kilograms of cannabis and 50,000 methamphetamine pills. Three prohibited weapons were also seized.

HA Yvan LeClair magnet for weapons/drugs bust

Hells Angel Yvan LeClair became the focus of investigators into guns and drugs.

A senior police inspector involved in the Feb. 22 raids that took down a network of gun and drug dealers said it was largely because of the alleged criminal activities of full patch HA Yvan LeClair. Police arrested and charged 18 residents of Ontario and Quebec yesterday with firearms and drug-trafficking offences after an 18-month long multi-agency investigation that spanned from the Greater Toronto Area to Montreal and into the U.S. Dubbed Project Silkstone, the operation landed 11,500 pills containing fentanyl, significant amounts of cocaine, MDMA, methamphetamine, marijuana, 23 guns, tens of thousands of dollars in cash and casino chips, equipment to make fake identity cards, electronic equipment used to counter tracking devices, vehicles, and Hells Angels gang paraphernalia.

In an unusual move, police said they made audio recordings of drug traffickers who callously admitted that the enormous profits that can be made from fentanyl far outweighs the overdose deaths that the synthetic causes. Much of the fentanyl that was seized was being sold out of Montreal.

Drugs seized in the operation were being transported from Canada across the U.S. border, where they were sold in Connecticut. Police say some of the equipment they recovered gave criminals the ability to produce counterfeit Ontario government identification, as well as passports. One of the suspects had a fake ID lab inside his home and used a former employee of Service Ontario to obtain identification under false names. Belleville police arrested three - Blair Crawford, 36, whom police said is affiliated with the Hells Angels MC; Kevin Cox, 46, and Meaghan Cox, 19. All are charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

UN Gangster Johnny 'K9' Kroitoru dies in Ontario halfway house

Career gangster Ion Kroitoru died Tuesday in a Toronto halfway house where he had been living since his release from an Abbotsford prison in September. It is suspected he died of heart failure. Kroitoru boasted a decades long history of assault, extortion and drugs. He often worked as an enforcer and debt collector for organized crime.

UN gang member Ion William Kroitoru greets Clay Roueche.

Kroitoru was president of the Hamilton, Ontario chapter of the Satan's Choice MC and was convicted of assault, and drug trafficking. In 1996 to get revenge for being kicked out of a strip club, Kroitoru and several friends bombed the local police station. He was later convicted and sentenced to 33 months in prison.

Kroitoru was arrested in 2005 for the shotgun execution of a lawyer and her husband. The Ontario Attorney General later withdrew the charges due to insufficient evidence. In 2013 Kroitoru pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and marijuana in lieu of the first-degree murder charges he faced from a UN gang killing. His sentence was 13 years in prison minus time in pre-trial custody. It was his third federal prison term.

See ----->http://gangstersoutt.blogspot.ca/2017/01/un-gangster-barzan-tilli-choli-deported.html

HA middleman Leslie John McCulloch Guilty

Leslie John McCulloch pleaded guilty Wednesday, but has been released on bail until his sentencing. McCulloch, who has been in custody since his arrest in March, was granted bail following his plea to allow him “to get his affairs in order,” according to the Crown. When McCulloch was arrested in March, he was on parole following a 4.5-year sentence for trafficking cocaine.

_________________________________________

Leslie John McCulloch, the man accused of running a Fentanyl-lacing operation out of a West Kelowna warehouse may soon plead guilty. In an appearance by video in Kelowna Supreme Court he asked a judge to grant him bail, saying he was willing to plead guilty. He’s been charged with production and possession of a controlled substance. The same day RCMP raided the warehouse of the Hells Angels' associate last March, another warrant was executed at McCulloch’s home. Police found approximately 800 fake OxyContin pills laced with Fentanyl and several gold bars believed to be stolen. His warehouse yielded 500 fake Percocet and OxyContin pills, 195 grams of suspected Fentanyl, two industrial pill presses capable of making 2,500 pills per hour and a chemical mixer.

When it comes to sentencing, fentanyl trafficking now appears to rank higher than cocaine, oxycodone and marijuana in Canada. Gordon Markle, 62, was recently sentenced in Huntsville court on January 18 after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking, possession of oxycodone for the purpose of trafficking and one count of possession of marijuana less than 30 grams. Markle received a 40-month jail sentence. His defence attorney said the 40-month sentence was on the low end of what convicted fentanyl traffickers could expect across the country.
“Fentanyl seems to be the new drug of choice for destruction of life.” said justice Justice JD Evans.
_________________________________________

A Kelowna couple will be spending more time apart as they await their next court date for charges related to production and possession of narcotics, including fentanyl. Leslie John McCulloch, 38, and Rebekka Rae White, 27, were charged after a police raid on March 2. McCulloch was denied bail in October and will remain in custody until the preliminary inquiry next year, scheduled for May 23-25, 2017. White is currently out on bail. Both McCulloch and White have elected to be tried by judge and jury.

Leslie John McCulloch and Rebekka Rae White are both charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking fentanyl

A Kelowna man charged in connection with a massive fentanyl bust was a 'middleman' for the Hells Angels. Leslie John McCulloch was charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking this summer following a raid in which RCMP seized two industrial pill presses and hundreds of fake OxyContin and Percocet pills made out of fentanyl.

The 38-year-old was on parole from a four-and-a-half year sentence for possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine at the time.

His conditions of release included an order not to have any contact with members of the gang. Members of the Kelowna RCMP's drug section put McCulloch under covert surveillance in September 2015.

Later that month, police saw him meet at his business with a senior full-patch member of the Hells Angels from Calgary. As a result, McCulloch's parole was suspended.

McCulloch was importing fentanyl from China and then making fake Percocet and Oxycontin pills.

McCulloch was released again, but his parole was revoked in May after the police raids. In addition to the fentanyl pills and the presses, RCMP seized gold bars, four bundles of cash totaling $35,600 and miscellaneous Hells Angels '81 Support' clothing.

Overdoses have killed 915 people in B.C. in 2016.

See ----->http://gangstersoutt.blogspot.ca/2017/01/illicit-drug-deaths-reach-record-high.html

Former Hells Angels clubhouse in Toronto demolished

The yellowed two-story cinderblock house once stood in Leslieville. With steel doors, windows strung with wire, security cameras and concrete barriers, it was often referred to as a bunker. The building went downhill when ownership abruptly changed hands in the early hours of April 4, 2007, when heavily-armed police stormed it as part of a massive crackdown on the bikers.

The building remained abandoned since 2007. The Crown took ownership of the property following the police raid and, following a court dispute, put it on the market in November 2015. It was sold to an unknown buyer for $885,000 — $235,000 over the asking price — in early 2016.

After a six-month trial, a jury acquitted five men of belonging to a criminal organization: John Neal, president; vice presidents Douglas Myles and Larry Pooler and full-patch members Mehrdad Bahman, and Lorne Campbell. Neal, Myles and Bahman were found guilty of drug charges relating to trafficking GHB; Campbell was found guilty of trafficking cocaine, and Pooler was found guilty of trafficking oxycodone and possessing a restricted weapon.

Alvaro Lopez Tardón

For years, Spaniard Alvaro Lopez Tardón was living the ultimate high life in Miami—fancy cars, seaside condos, designer jewelry and clothes. But it all came crashing down in the summer of 2011 when he was named in a U.S. federal money laundering indictment as the head of an international narcotics trafficking ring. Tardón made his initial mark in the drug trade in the 1990s, when he and his brother Artemio worked for a ruthless drug trafficker in Spain. By the early 2000s, the Tardón brothers began a bloody feud with their boss and began their own criminal enterprise.

Alvardo directed the enterprise from Miami while second-in-command Artemio ran things from Madrid.

They were successful — their enterprise was believed responsible for distributing more than 7,500 kilos of South American cocaine in Spain and laundering more than $14 million in illegal drug proceeds in the United States. The money laundering of the illegal drug profits used purchases of luxury vehicles and high-end real estate in the Miami area.

Tardon's $3.5m collection of seized luxury cars included a Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Ghost and a Maybach. In late 2015, after being tried and convicted on numerous money laundering charges, Tardón was sentenced to 150 years in jail, exchanging one of his spacious South Beach penthouses for a federal prison cell where he will spend the rest of his life.

Bad tires lead to 6.8 kilo coke bust

Two drug dealers discovered the peril of not having snow tires: they were arrested for possession of 6.8 kilograms of cocaine after their car slid off a Nova Scotia road. RCMP say they spotted the car off a rural road in Kemptown at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday. "They noticed a vehicle in the ditch so they stopped to help," Cpl. Jennifer Clarke said Monday. "It all started with just stopping to provide assistance."

Despite the slippery conditions, the pair weren't driving on snow tires, an omission that likely led to their predicament. But officers soon discovered both people in the car had outstanding warrants. A 34-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman from Moncton, N.B., are facing charges of cocaine possession. It's the second major drug bust stemming from a routine traffic stop in Nova Scotia this month.

Mafia chief with permanent erection faces stiff sentence

Notorious crime lord Francesco Castriotta, 42, was arrested hiding out in El Vendrell, Spain, south of Barcelona. Castriotta fled Italy during his trial for cocaine trafficking and has spent the last seven years on the lam. He now faces 21 years in the slammer. “He can expect a stiff penalty when he returns to Italy,” one Italian cop quipped.

While awaiting trial in Milan in 2009, the cocaine-loving mobster pleaded with a woman judge in Milan not to remand him to jail because of his painful condition, called priapism. The drug king, who sobbed in court as he clutched a bag of ice to his groin, claimed it had been caused by years of cocaine.

CBSA finds 7 kg of cocaine hidden beneath food trolleys on airplane

The Canada Border Services Agency says it has seized seven kilograms of cocaine from the bottom of food trolleys on an airplane. The agency says it made the discovery earlier this month at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

It says officers noticed something unusual about the catering trolleys on board and examined them more closely. The agency said it seized over 1,569 kilograms of suspected cocaine in the Greater Toronto Area last year.

Fentanyl hitting Ontario hard

Toronto police are warning the public that heroin being sold on the streets of downtown Toronto may be laced with fentanyl. The warning comes after a 28-year-old man died of an overdose near Queen and Bathurst streets. In Barrie, Police say five people who overdosed after using what they believed was cocaine at a party in the city north of Toronto, actually took heroin laced with fentanyl. Four men and a woman were taken to a hospital after collapsing in various locations in downtown Barrie. Investigators say the five had been at a party and believed they had taken cocaine. They survived. Police in Ottawa recently busted a fentanyl ring and issued a warning after counterfeit pills manufactured to look identical to prescription opioids were found to contain fentanyl.

Fatal opioid overdoses in Massachusetts continued to climb in 2016 to an estimated 2,000, according to a new report released from the Department of Public Health. Unintentional opioid overdoses accounted for 1,465 deaths last year in the State. Of the 1,374 opioid deaths last year for which toxicology screens were available, fentanyl was found in 1,031.

Charges against cop could affect weapons case against Nicholas Chan

Perjury allegations against a senior Calgary police officer could impact the weapons-related trial of gang leader and murder suspect Nicholas Chan. Chan’s retrial on five charges relating to the March 3, 2010, discovery of a loaded .32 calibre handgun under the driver’s seat of his car, has been delayed until March so defence lawyer Michael Bates can review information on charges against Sgt. Les Kaminski.

Nick Chan was leader of one of Calgary's most notorious and deadly gangs — FOB. Chan's paranoia kept him safe from the gang's fierce rivals, the FK — a splinter group that formed because of personal rifts between members of the FOB. Chan's eventual downfall were the informants ... other top-ranking founding members of the FOB. Most have been killed, are in custody, or have made plea deals. In March Chan was found not guilty of first-degree murder for the death of Sanjeev Mann at the Bolsa Restaurant on New Year's Day 2009.

FOB enforcer Hans Eastgaard, in an interview with police, detailed how Chan ordered the death of Kevin Anaya in August 2008. Chan planned the attack, choose the gang member who would commit it and gave him a gun. Anaya was shot and killed while walking to a friend's house for a barbecue in Marlborough, one of 25 killed in the FOB-FK gang war.

Kevin Anaya

See ----->http://gangstersoutt.blogspot.ca/2017/01/naming-charged-officers-in-calgary.html