Josh Visser |
An associate of the
Montreal-based Rizzuto organized crime family was sentenced to 10 years in
prison as part of a massive drug-trafficking ring and was ordered to hand over
more than $2-million in illegal profits.
Alessandro Taloni and ten
others based out of Montreal, connected to the Rizzuto and Bonanno crime
families, the Hells Angels and the Sinaloa Cartel, were responsible for
trafficking more than $1-billion in illegal drugs into the U.S. between 1998
and 2012, prosecutors say.
Taloni, 38, plead guilty to
trafficking last May but was only sentenced Friday in a Brooklyn, New York
courtroom. He was ordered to forfeit $2,663,191 already seized.
“Taloni used his connections to
powerful international organized crime groups to distribute deadly narcotics,
worth tens of millions of dollars, across North America. His prosecution and
sentence demonstrate this office’s unrelenting commitment to swiftly pursuing
and prosecuting transnational organized crime beyond state and national
borders,” United States Attorney for New York Loretta Lynch said in a statement
Friday.
Taloni has duel Canadian and
Italian citizenship.
Authorities said Taloni was
sent from Montreal to Los Angeles to head up a drug operation based out of
Beverly Hills.
“During the course of the
government’s investigation, federal agents seized approximately $1 million in
drug proceeds and 49 kilograms of cocaine from searches of Taloni’s Mercedes
Benz sedan, Beverly Hills residence, and a stash house operated by Taloni in
Beverly Hills. Search warrants executed at other stash houses operated by the
organization in the Los Angeles area resulted in the seizure of an additional
34 kilograms of cocaine and approximately $1,600,000,” the U.S. Department of
Justice said in a statement Friday.
Taloni was directly connected
to now-deceased mob boss Vito Rizzuto in a court document. Rizzuto died last
December of natural causes.
“At the time of his arrest,
Canadian law enforcement seized a telephone from Taloni that contained contact
numbers for a number of prominent members of the Montreal Mafia – including
Vito Rizzuto, the boss of the Rizzuto crime family,” said a court document.
Authorities said Taloni was
arrested not long after delivering $188,000 to an undercover DEA agent, who was
participating in an investigation into the drug ring kingin, Jimmy Cournoyer.
“After the transfer occurred,
local law enforcement agents conducted surveillance of the defendant. During
the surveillance, the defendant was observed traveling to the Beverly Hills
Hotel where he met with another man, who gave the defendant a large suitcase,”
says a sentencing letter written by Lynch. “The defendant then placed the large
suitcase in the trunk of his vehicle and took it to the home of an individual
who would later begin cooperating with the government.
“Later that night,
investigators stopped the defendant’s vehicle and found within it over $80,000
in United States currency and numerous BlackBerrys and other prepaid cellular
telephones. When investigators searched [the cooperating individual's] home,
they found 49 kilograms of cocaine and approximately $1.7 million.”