#GANGSTERS ORGANIZED CRIME INTERROGATION PROFESSIONAL#
All property seized by police must now be returned - with the exception of illegal possessions, such as the gambling machines, Lacy said.įederal Crown prosecutor Xenia Proestos announced the charges were stayed after privately reviewing the results of an independent investigation by the Toronto Police Service's professional standards unit into the use of the privileged conversations. "They knew what they were doing was wrong."Īfter two years of work, millions of dollars in costs and extensive resources expended, Canadian authorities have almost nothing to show for it. "They must have learned this in the first minute, the first hour, day one of police training," she said. (York Regional Police)Īdrienne Lei, a Toronto lawyer who didn't work on the case but has experience with police misconduct cases, said all officers are trained to know that privileged conversations between a lawyer and their client may not be used in court. Two of five Ferraris seized by police as part of Project Sindacato now have to be returned. Police said at the news conference that the alleged Figliomeni organization was closely connected to the 'Ndrangheta, the most powerful organized crime group in Italy and one of the richest in the world.īased in the southern Italian region of Calabria, the 'Ndrangheta are believed to make more than $80 billion a year - largely from drug trafficking, according to a 2014 news report.Īuthorities involved in the case alleged that Angelo Figliomeni is the head of the 'Ndrangheta in Toronto, but Lacy said the York Regional Police investigation uncovered no such evidence. Italian State Police also arrested 12 people in connection with the investigation whom they described at a press conference on Jas "closely associated to the Canadian branch of the operation." The group was accused of running illegal gambling operations, fraud, drug trafficking and laundering money through casinos, York Regional Police said in a news release issued in July 2019. Project Sindacato was an 18-month, $8 million joint investigation that began in 2018 involving eight different police services, including York Regional Police, the Canada Revenue Agency and police investigators in Italy. Police alleged they were part of a criminal organization with ties to the Mob in Italy. "The defence has taken the position that the entirety of the police investigation was tainted by what we would allege to be unlawful and illegal conduct by both York Regional Police officers and by members of the Canada Revenue Agency," Michael Lacy, Figliomeni's lawyer, said at last month's hearing following a defence application to have the charges stayed.Īngelo Figliomeni was among nine people arrested by police in the Greater Toronto Area in July 2019 as part of a group accused of running illegal gambling operations, fraud, drug trafficking and laundering money. 27, prosecutors stayed the charges against six of the accused, including alleged boss Angelo Figliomeni, after defence lawyers raised concerns that investigators committed "significant breaches of solicitor/client privilege." Three of the accused previously had their charges stayed in 2020. The operation, dubbed Project Sindacato, resulted in charges against nine people in Canada who police alleged were part of a criminal organization with ties to the Mob in Italy. One of the largest police investigations into organized crime in Ontario's history has fallen apart after police allegedly illegally intercepted phone calls as part of a multimillion-dollar probe into suspected Mob activity in the Greater Toronto Area, CBC News has learned.
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