RCMP Watch

24 Hours News Service

An RCMP expert in electronic surveillance has been arrested in Montreal and charged with selling police secrets to organized crime, 24 hours news services has learned.Angelo Cecere, a 50-year-old visually impaired civilian employee, has worked for decades for the RCMP, listening to sensitive police wiretaps of criminals under investigation, translating them from Italian, and interpreting their meaning.

The RCMP learned recently that they had a mole among them during an important investigation when they discovered their reports had somehow gotten into the hands of certain criminals, sources said.

A special squad of internal investigators then set up a sting and tricked the employee.

Cpl. Sylvain L’Heureux confirms an RCMP employee was arrested following an investigation, but would say no more.

But sources told 24 hours news services that the employee was always considered - until recently - to be beyond suspicion, and was usually assigned “extremely sensitive dossiers.”

Cecere, who worked at the RCMP’s headquarters in the Montreal municipality of Westmount, was arrested in mid-July. His Montreal home was also searched. He was reportedly released on bail after signing a promise to appear in court to answer charges of breach of trust.

Met by a reporter in front of his home yesterday, Cecere refused to comment on the charges. “I do not have anything to say to you,” he said. “Get out of here!”

Sources said police found RCMP documents during the search of Cecere’s home, with some papers dating from secret investigations as far back as the 1990s.