Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun
Longtime Vancouver underworld figure Salvatore Ciancio — a man involved in two sensational drug-and-murder busts by the RCMP — has again escaped jail for his unsavoury activity.
In November, he beat two first-degree murder charges even though convicted killer Robert Moyes said the drug-dealing smuggler hired him to murder a Burnaby couple 12 years ago.
Now Ciancio has managed to walk away from a cross-border cocaine conspiracy bust that was the product of a much-touted multimillion-dollar crackdown by the Mounties on organized crime.
“I have concluded that the totality and quality of the evidence against Ciancio does not meet the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” Justice Barry Davies concluded.
t is another stunning loss for the RCMP.
Ciancio’s ex-wife, Tami Morrisroe, entered a witness protection program in 1996 saying he belonged to a drug ring connected to a series of grisly underworld executions.
She had infiltrated Vancouver’s criminal netherworld in an unsuccessful attempt to clear her father, Sid Morrisroe, a Burnaby plumber convicted of orchestrating the 1984 killing of Penthouse strip club owner Joe Philliponi — one of the city’s most infamous slayings.
After this interdiction, Ciancio was later charged with hiring two men — one identified only as Black Mike and contract killer Moyes — to murder Eugene Uyeyama, 35, and his wife, Michelle, 30.
Eugene Uyeyama had turned police informant after being snared by police along with a $13-million shipment of cocaine. The couple was strangled and set alight in their home Dec. 21, 1995.
But B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mary Ellen Boyd after a trial last year disbelieved Moyes, who pleaded guilty in 2002 to murdering seven people, and found evidence against Ciancio gathered by the RCMP in an undercover “Mr. Big” sting operation to be unreliable, vague, confusing and inconclusive.
Again, in spite of seemingly incriminating evidence from fellow accused and intercepted phone conversations described as “Soprano-like,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Davies recently gave Ciancio another pass.
He and Christopher Lees were charged with conspiring to import 12 kilograms of cocaine into Canada in October 2001 after several others — Troy Craig, Theodore Dreger, Paul Smith and David Serdar — were nabbed by customs officers at a Washington state resort. The Americans also seized 12 kilograms of cocaine.
Lees testified on his own behalf and said both men were involved in a conspiracy to smuggle a large amount of U.S. cash into Canada.
Ciancio, he said, also was involved in a scheme to smuggle ecstasy.
But Lees maintained the cocaine in this case was someone else’s.
Although Ciancio did not testify, his lawyer did not dispute Lees’ testimony.
In its case, the prosecution relied primarily upon the testimony of convicted conspirator Craig as well as that of Leonard V’Dovec, an American customs officer.
Both were found wanting in credibility.
“I am satisfied by the totality of the evidence that on Oct. 25, 2001, Ciancio directed Craig and Dreger to take the Athena [Ciancio's boat] to Orcas Island for the purpose of bringing contraband back to Canada,” the justice said.
“What is controversial and at the heart of the issue to be decided in this case is whether the evidence as a whole proves that Ciancio directed the trip as part of a scheme to pick up the large quantity of cocaine that is the subject of these proceedings, or as part of a plan to smuggle currency, or ecstasy, or both, into Canada.
The problem was the principal prosecution witness, Craig, was a captured co-conspirator and a paid Mountie informant with a criminal record for marijuana and cocaine trafficking.
The other key witness, U.S. customs officer V’Dovec, destroyed a cellular telephone that contained highly relevant information and his evidence conflicted seriously with other testimony and billing records for the missing cellphone.
The wiretaps proved next to useless as well.
“The various intercepted communications between Lees and Ciancio and others upon which the Crown relies are ‘Soprano-like’ in their use of code as well as guarded and imprecise language to mask or avoid the detection of obvious criminal activity,” Davies said.
Still, here’s how it went down.
In the early afternoon of Oct. 25, 2001, Craig, accompanied by co-conspirator, Dreger, left Pender Island aboard the Athena bound for West Beach Resort on Orcas.
The evidence established Ciancio bought the boat in the late spring of 2001 for smuggling currency and other contraband, including illegal drugs.
It was also indicated Craig was the principal if not the exclusive operator of the Athena after its purchase and use a number of times in smuggling runs.
Craig had been on Orcas on at least two and possibly three earlier occasions. He had dropped off at least one load of B.C. bud and picked up cocaine from Paul Smith, another co-conspirator, and delivered it to Canada aboard the Athena.
As a result, a police informant at the West Beach Resort was sufficiently suspicious about Craig that he or she called the sheriff’s department upon hearing he was on the way.
The sheriff’s office alerted U.S. Customs and the two agencies nabbed Craig and Dreger.
At the time, Craig told them: “Hey, I’m not involved in this. That’s Ted’s thing. I’m just the boat driver.”
But Craig was soon cooperating.
He talked to Lees shortly before 1 a.m. on Oct. 26 and told him the coast was clear. Shortly afterwards, Smith, together with Serdar, arrived with the cocaine. They were arrested, too.
Craig, Serdar, Smith and Dreger all ultimately pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges and received sentences of varying lengths ranging from 10 years for Smith to 30 months for Craig.
During the plea-bargaining process, Craig fingered Ciancio and Lees in return for a reduced sentence.
Although the precise amount of the sentence reduction received by Craig is not known, it was evidently substantial.
As well, Craig was allowed to serve most of his sentence in Canada. He also received sentences for other Canadian crimes that he was allowed to serve concurrently.
All of that detracted from his reliability, the justice decided.
While Davies concluded Lees was involved — given the midnight phone call that preceded the arrival of the cocaine — he wasn’t satisfied Ciancio knew about the deal.
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