Quebec man convicted in Mafia-linked conspiracy deported to Italy
Canadian Press
Published:
March 23, 2019
Updated:
March 23, 2019 12:25 AM EDT
Michele Torre is seen at his home Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, in Laval, Que. Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL — Michele Torre, a Quebec man convicted in 1996 for his role in a Mafia-linked conspiracy, finally ran out of options to stay in Canada and boarded a plane Friday night to his native Italy, his lawyer said.
Stephane Handfield said his client — along with an escort of two Canada Border Services agents — boarded an 8 p.m. flight bound for Italy at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
Canada’s public safety minister intervened at least four times in Torre’s case to stop his deportation, Handfield said. But this time, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale did not grant Torre’s request. Handfield said he emailed Goodale’s office Friday morning but “received no response” from the minister or his aides.
Torre, 66, was granted permanent residency to Canada in 1967. He was convicted in 1996 in a cocaine-importation conspiracy linked to the Cotroni crime family and served part of a nearly nine-year prison sentence.
In 2006, Torre again found himself swept up by police during a massive operation aimed at dismantling Montreal’s powerful Mafia. He spent nearly three years in custody but was ultimately acquitted. Since 2013, federal authorities have sought to remove Torre for “serious criminality and organized criminality.”
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Torre and his family claimed it was unfair to deport him so long after his last conviction, which now dates back 23 years. They argued he should have been allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds since he had lived in Canada so long and his wife, children and grandchildren are here.
He was on the verge of being deported in 2016 before a ministerial reprieve arrived 90 minutes before his flight. He was then given a two-year temporary residence permit. After that expired, the Canada Border Services Agency scheduled a deportation date, this time for Feb. 28, but Goodale’s office intervened again — on the morning of Torre’s scheduled flight — and granted a reprieve.
Handfield said that on March 11 the CBSA gave Torre another deportation date, scheduled for March 22.
The lawyer decried the plan to have his client accompanied by CBSA agents on the flight to Italy, which he said will single him out for interrogation by authorities upon arrival.
“We worry about his arrival. What will be the attitude of the Italian customs officials?” Handfield said.
A spokesman for Goodale’s office said the minister cannot comment on an individual case.
http://torontosun.com/news/crime/quebec-man-convicted-in-mafia-linked-conspiracy-deported-to-italy
Somebody should slap that lawyer up side the head !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it will NOT make the goof any smarter but it might shut him up for a while!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damned LIE-berals always act like the idea of deporting a criminal - for any reason - is the Cdn equivalent of passing on some sort of nasty legal based social disease!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE already have enough home grown criminals.................as the recent hit on the Hells Angel proved..................
SO WTF do we need to IMPORT MORE CRIMINALS FOR????????????????????????
And WHAT IN HELL is wrong with sending criminals....................and convicted Muslim terrorists BACK where they came from??????
LIE-beral legal system and national security are a SCANDALOUS MESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All manner of clowns hide out here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Consider this piece of LIE-beral national security that is worthy of Curly, Larry and Moe:::::::::::
Here is yet another article illustrating how little respect LIE-berals have for Cdn national security. With some comments of my own in brackets):
Brit tax cheat deported; hid in Ottawa for years
By Brad Hunter. Published: June 4, 2018. Updated: June 4, 2018 4:46 PM EDT
Filed Under: Toronto SUN/ News/ World
Convicted scam artist Hussain Asad Chohan has been deported to the UK after living worry free in Ottawa for 11 years. BIRMINGHAM POLICE
A notorious millionaire British tax cheat has been booted from Canada.
(Perhaps he bought some friends by buying tickets to those dandy Justin Trudope LIE-beral pay for access dinners?? You know the ones I mean- at one of them two Chinese business men lobbied Our idiot Boy for the right to open up an Cdn branch of some Chinese Bank.....................and two weeks after they contributed a million dollars to the Trudope Family Foundation/ charity............they GOT their biz license for Canada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
(AND NO!!!!!!!! You are NOT allowed to point out to a LIE-beral that foreigners are SUPPOSED TO BE BANNED from contributing to Cdn political parties!!!!!!)
Like a lot of other alleged scammers, the Birmingham Mail said Hussain Asad Chohan hid in plain sight in Ottawa.
(Apparently the guy presented himself as a wealthy investor and a flashed some cash - and so what if it was stolen- was enough for LIE-berals to swing the gate wide for him?)
Chohan fled the UK while he was on trial for his role in a tobacco smuggling caper in 2006. He spent more than 11 years on the run and owes a mouth watering $91 million.
(Oh GREAT! The guy will fit in nicely with our native tobacco scammers!)
The 49-year-old was pinched and deported back to the UK last week where he is being held in jail. He is now serving a 12-year prison sentence.
Chohan was extradited by a team of officers from HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Offender Management and Enforcement Team, with the assistance from the RCMP and Interpol.
The Mail said Chohan fled first to Pakistan, then Dubai and finally to Canada where he lived comfortably using a bogus ID.
(And our LIE-beral security is so lax they never noticed the trail of fakery!)
Indeed, a convicted scam artist must have thought he was in hog heaven in Ottawa. POSTMEDIA
(One wonders if he considered offering “how to” advice to all those Cdns on the Paradise Papers tax evasion list at those Carribean banks?)
Chohan was linked to a £185m tax scam involving phony companies set up to fraudulently reclaim taxes by faking the import and export of mobile phones and microchips.
(Oh- and Yankees are already worried about industrial espionage and theft of their military technology- so they would flip over having such a scammer near their borders! This IS WHY Trump wants changes to our national security in exchange for a NAFTA deal! Yankees want criminals like this kept at a long distance and Our idiot Boy is doing the opposite- he WELCOMES these creeps as an antidote to what Pierre Trudeau called “Cdn Imperialism”! The Trudeau clan is NOT NOTED for its strong defence of Cdn democracy or capitalism!)
Because Chohan won’t pay up, he’ll do an extra seven years in prison. His debt is growing at a rate of almost $10,000 a day.
According to the British newspaper, Chohan began laying down roots for a new life in Canada in 2010, making frequent trips from Dubai.
He lived in Ottawa under the false name of Muhammad Afzal Khan, and was tracked down by HMRC working closely with the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency.
RCMP arrested Chohan at Toronto airport as he returned to Canada from the United Arab Emirates in September 2016.
He was placed in custody at a correctional centre in Lindsay, before eventually being flown back to the UK.
“Chohan thought he could avoid prison by fleeing the country and ran away to set up a new life for himself,” said Simon York, Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC.
“But he couldn’t run forever and his criminal past eventually caught up with him.”
(And we can bet that if LIE-berals took national security and crime more seriously the scammer would have been caught SOONER rather than later! And there are the usual questions about where the money from the scams went- how much of it has ended up in the pockets of Muslim or other terrorists? Just how much damage has this tax cheat really done to the west? LIE-berals do not know nor do they care- just so long as their gravy is safe then all is right with the world!)
(Besides- LIE-berals are far too busy trying to pretend that recent DAMNING news reports of how easy it is to launder drug money in Cdn casinos are somehow exaggerated and possibly wrong! As usual LIE-berals choose NOT to spend their gravy on a mundane task like rounding up criminals! This LIE-beral indifference to the activities of organized crime is another solid reason for Yankees to treat Canada as a security risk!)