The Court of Appeal maintains the acquittal pronounced in 2019 against Leonardo Rizzuto, one of its alleged leaders of the Montreal mafia, facing charges of possession of prohibited weapons and cocaine.
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Three judges from the highest court in Quebec made this decision on Tuesday, rejecting the arguments of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) who challenged this verdict in favor of the son of the late Mafia godfather, Vito Rizzuto.
Leonardo Rizzuto, who is a lawyer, had been charged with gangsterism, illegal possession of two pistols, one of which was loaded, and five sachets of cocaine following the police operation Magot, carried out against several leading factions of organized crime in 2015.
He was first acquitted of gangsterism in February 2018, along with another co-leader of the Rizzuto clan, Stefano Sollecito, when Superior Court Judge Eric Downs excluded the incriminating evidence amassed against them by the police. by means of wiretapping.
The recording of these conversations in the office of ex-lawyer Loris Cavaliere, where Me Rizzuto also has his office, were declared illegal, in particular because the method used by the police did not allow professional secrecy between lawyers and clients.
On February 25, 2019, Judge Julie Riendeau, of the Court of Quebec, applied the same reasoning by acquitting the 52-year-old Laval resident for the second time in the same year.
The judge concluded that it was the result of this wiretapping invalidated by his colleague Downs which had given rise to the search of Mr. Rizzuto’s home in Laval, where the police seized the prohibited weapons and drugs.
The two semi-automatic pistols – a loaded .40 caliber Walther P99 and a 6.35 caliber Browning – were concealed above the kitchen refrigerator.
The sachets containing a total of 5 grams of cocaine were found in a pouch of a Hugo Boss jacket.
The Court of Appeal upheld Justice Riendeau’s decision by reiterating that Rizzuto’s constitutional rights were infringed during the wiretap and that the police had not obtained other reasonable or sufficient grounds during their investigation that could lead him to believe that the co-leader of the Rizzuto clan kept weapons and drugs in his home.