October 4, 2019, 11:29 a.m. As he has done every day since he was incarcerated at the Drummondville penitentiary, Sergio Piccirilli goes to the cafeteria, and takes two bottles of water that he has flavored in his space reserved, in a freezer.
The inmate, considered by the police at one time as an individual close to both the mafia and bikers, then places his bottles in his cell, which he locks, goes about his business and returns later to his jail.
He takes a sip from one of his bottles, the contents of which are thawed, but immediately spits it out, grimacing.
He leaves his cell and walks in the corridor, when he comes across a fellow inmate.
“You’re all white, what’s wrong with you?” », asks the latter, worried. “Don’t move,” he adds, before running in search of a correctional officer.
Piccirilli’s vision becomes blurred. He is dizzy and nauseous. He is escorted to the gymnasium and then to the infirmary, where his condition deteriorates. He is given naloxone.
Paramedics were called and Piccirilli was transported to hospital where his condition was stabilized. He is out of danger, but he was definitely the victim of a crime.
A fellow inmate in the line of fire
Tests show the presence of fentanyl and carfentanil – opioids that can potentially cause a fatal overdose – in Piccirilli’s urine and that the substances were added to the bottle of flavored water, without his knowledge.
When a crime is committed in a penitentiary in Quebec, it is the Sûreté du Québec which investigates.
Investigator Axel-Simon Lajoie views videos from surveillance cameras installed inside the penitentiary cafeteria and notices the presence of an individual who comes and goes between a table and the freezers, and seems to be hiding something under his coat, in the days preceding the crime and the day before.
IMAGE TAKEN FROM A VIDEO FILED IN COURT
In the center, Sergio Piccirilli passes near Michael Brazier (seated with suspenders) holding the bottle of sugary water contaminated with opioids in his right hand, around 11:30 a.m. on October 4, 2019.
The man, who is betrayed by his black suspenders, is identified: Michael Brazier.
At the time of the events, Brazier was serving – and this is still the case – a life sentence, without being eligible for parole for 12 years, for having killed his neighbor with a firearm in 2012.
For the crime against Piccirilli, he was arrested in January 2021 and charged with administering a noxious substance under section 245 (1) b) of the Criminal Code.
During his preliminary investigation, Piccirilli testified and said that he and Brazier knew each other inside the walls, shared a few meals, nothing more, and that they were not in conflict.
Tuesday, at the Drummondville courthouse, with his trial soon scheduled, Brazier pleaded guilty.
He signed a statement of facts according to which he was responsible for the refrigerators in his house, that a third party gave him a bottle and asked him to substitute it for one of those belonging to Piccirilli and that he believed that it was a joke.
Judge Conrad Chapdelaine, of the Court of Quebec, endorsed a common suggestion from the prosecution, represented by Mr.e Vicky Smith, and the defense, provided by Me Marie-Claude Lacroix, and sentenced Brazier to a two-year sentence concurrent with the life sentence he is already serving.
If Brazier’s sentence is not extended, however, the summary of facts has been placed in his file at Correctional Services, and this new conviction could have an impact when parole commissioners review his case.
“I’m not Superman”
During the preliminary hearing, Piccirilli said he didn’t know who could blame him.
“Honestly, I can’t tell you, but it’s easy to notify someone that their life is in danger. It’s true ? Not true ? I don’t know. But if my life was in danger like everyone told me, it happened in 2005 and here we are in 2022! I’m not Superman! “, he told the judge.
In 2005, investigators from the Colisée anti-mafia investigation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police witnessed live a rise in tensions between the D’Amico mafia clans from Granby and Rizzuto from Montreal over a debt affair following a marijuana export gone bad.
Piccirilli had entered the Consenza café, the former headquarters of the Sicilian clan on rue Jarry, displaying the butt of a pistol on his belt.
“This guy has balls,” said one of the clan leaders, Francesco Arcadi, on the telephone lines monitored by the police.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Sergio Piccirilli in 2014
A year later, an RCMP investigator, Joe Tomeo, went to Piccirilli’s house to warn him that his life was in danger.
“Can I do something for you?” “, the police officer asked him.
“Send me flowers”, the biker replied before calling his former mistress, Sharon Simon, the “Queen of Kanesatake”, to obtain a weapon in order to “protect himself”, he said. told parole commissioners.
In 2016, Piccirilli was sentenced to 15 years in prison for gangsterism, weapon possession, conspiracy and drug trafficking, following his arrest in an RCMP investigation called Cleopatra.
Aged 64, he has been on parole since 2022.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.